transcribed by em (@houseplantfiend on twitter)
AUSTIN: Will the kingdom put counterrevolutionaries on trial?
JACK: Hm. I think Clem rolls her eyes, uh, and holds her hands out for handcuffs.
[TANAGER. PERFECT. TOUCHPAPER. by Jack de Quidt begins under voiceover.]
SYLVIA (as Ver’million Blue): Oh, we didn’t bring those.
KEITH (as Exeter Leap): We didn’t bring those, we’re just gonna grab you.
JACK (as Clementine Kesh): Valence has gotten to work very quickly, haven’t they? Thank you. It means a lot. Where would you like me to go?
DRE (as Valence): I think your room is fine.
JACK (as Clem): Oh, just down the hall?
KEITH (as Leap): [indignant] I think it’s the brig! What?
JANINE (as Gucci Garantine): Why does it feel like Sovereign Immunity still has sovereign immunity here? Because Sovereign Immunity was helping Clementine do everything that Clementine did. And Clementine’s in trouble, and Sovereign Immunity is not.
AUSTIN (as Jesset City): That’s a good point.
JANINE (as Gucci): Just seems weird.
ALI (as Kal’mera Broun): Thisbe, you can break this door, right?
JANINE (as Thisbe): Physically, I can. But ethically, I cannot.
ALI (as Broun): [splutters] What does it matter? [laughs] Thisbe!
DRE (as Valence): This has… This has gone too far.
DRE: I’m just gonna open all the doors.
AUSTIN: Uh, you know, we kind of like, are all in front of a big Millenium Break graffiti mark? Like, someone’s tagged a wall with Millenium Break. And it’s like– I think Gur is like:
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): So neither of you did this, right? And no one you know did this.
SYLVIA (as Milli): No, this– this is my first time seeing this.
AUSTIN (as Gur): This is organic. This is– this is real. This is happening.
SYLVIA (as Milli): Yeah.
AUSTIN (as Gur): Huh.
SYLVIA (as Milli): People seem excited about it here.
AUSTIN (as Gur): Because they’re not on board. They don’t know what’s happening right now on Icebreaker.
DRE (as Valence): Is this for your throne?
JACK (as Clem): Yes.
DRE (as Valence): And what is your plan? When you have a throne.
JACK (as Clem): Oh, I don’t know. I’m sure that, uh, our plans could dovetail at that point. We could sign some border arrangements. You would be able to continue your philanthropic activities as you wish, you know, in and around my regions. Valence, I don’t care very much about what it is that you’re doing, but I understand that you care about it a great deal. Uh, and you seem to think me valuable enough to let out of jail, so I’m just hoping that we can come to some kind of an agreement.
DRE (as Valence): Um, I’m not ready for an agreement, but I think this has been very fruitful. And I think you’ve really helped me figure out what it is Millenium Break should be doing.
[Voiceover ends, music plays to the end.]
AUSTIN: Um, hmm, you know what, let me just– let me just set this up, how’s that sound? Let me set up the, the– this next one.
KEITH: That sounds like the usual.
AUSTIN: That does sound like the usual one. Um, there’s one coming up that you’re gonna have some flexibility in, you’re gonna have to tell me, but instead let’s just go for this one. It has been– how long has it been between that last bit and this bit? Maybe like a week? Things are going okay, two weeks? Can we get like two weeks, does that feel fine?
KEITH: Yeah, I’ll give you two weeks. Granted.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Things are like settling. Thank you, Powers, for the two weeks. Uh, next order of business. Um, as Clementine Kesh rots in jail, um–
JANINE: She’s not rotting!
KEITH: It’s been two weeks.
AUSTIN: Sorry. As Clementine Kesh spoils in jail, uh–
KEITH (overlapping): Withers?
AUSTIN (overlapping): Withers, yeah.
JANINE: That’s already happened.
SYLVIA: Clementine Kesh is already spoiled.
AUSTIN: Yeah, fair. [laughs]
ART: Clementine Kesh, unrefrigerated cheese, left on the counter.
AUSTIN: [vague noise of disgust] As Clementine Kesh smells in jail… Um…
[SYLVIA laughs.]
AUSTIN: There– Okay. I think then we have a moment when Gucci Garantine is in the emergency command deck, the kind of secondary bridge, um, and someone looks up to you and says:
AUSTIN (as unnamed person on the command deck): [alarmed] Um, what’s that?
AUSTIN: Uh, and the scanners go wild. There’s all sorts of loud beeping, there’s a– a proximity alert, something is about to hit the station. Alarms go off everywhere as Icebreaker Prime braces for impact. Um, and in the sky something like breaks through the sound barrier, comes down through the heavens at you, and then comes to an impossibly quick stop. Um, it is a white ship with a kind of gold trim, um, the– I think of it as being in like an arrow-headed shape, um, a really exaggerated– uh, with exaggerated tails. It’s about as big as, like, a small spaceship frigate, I think something like the Millenium Falcon (pronounced fal-kn), right? [amused] I mean the Millenium Falcon (pronounced fol-kn), sorry.
Um, uh, the– Those gold lines are revealed to not just be, like, cool-looking, you know, um, uh, what’s the word I’m looking for... embellishments, but are actually the part at which this ship can unfold itself into its other form. They’re revealed to kind of be secret joints where it transforms from this kind of arrow-mech, or arrow-ship, into a mech with kind of similar, uh, features. Kind of big overhanging armor that has those same sort of arrow tails, um, lots of triangular shapes in it, and it’s huge. It’s a huge mech, it’s bigger than like, Mow, even. It’s maybe not the biggest mech we’ve ever seen on screen or anything like that, it’s not as big as even Icebreaker Prime is, but it’s still very large. It’s larger than even the machine that we saw Motion in back during that last Rapid Evening game, and again, bigger than Mow. [amused] Um, so big.
And with almost, like, a sweep of light, it sort of freezes the sea into place, as if it’s turning it into ice, into solid matter, and then lands there, um, and takes a knee. And at first you’re like, ‘Is it kneeling... for us? What’s happening?’ And then a light is projected from its– from its, like, its eyes, its eyes are similarly kind of gold, like, uh, V-shaped, to match all of the triangular stuff. And, um, those eyes flash and project an image, a person.
This is the Divine Present. And what you see is the image of its Elect, Gallica. G-A-L-L-I-C-A. Who is also just this incredible vision in white and gold, um, she has on a kind of seek– sleek suit with these kind of big– with a big, flared, white coat and a wide collar. Her hair is up in sort of like a messy pompadour with a side-braid, um, the specific haircut I like here is this one of… Of, um, Edy Ganem, with this just like, this really high pompadour that’s a little messy, it’s a little– things are out of place. You have the impression that, like, she is constantly busy, she’s constantly doing things. Uh, and she… um, addresses all of Millenium Break, um, and says:
AUSTIN (as Gallica): My name is Gallica, and I request a conversation with those of you in charge of this admirable initiative.
AUSTIN: And as a reminder, she’s like, as big as– this projection is as big as Icebreaker Prime is. Um…
AUSTIN (as Gallica): Should I come on board or should we do it like this?
AUSTIN: How do you receive this Elect?
KEITH: Is that the crisis? I mean, is that the crossroad?
AUSTIN (overlapping): No, no, no.
KEITH: Um. I think come– I think, come on board.
AUSTIN: Okay. Um, she comes on board and has this like incredible air of confidence that nothing anyone can do here can touch her? Um, and lays things out for you: she represents a group that she does not name, um, that has something for you. She would like to work with you.
Uh, if you take a peek at the top of the map, um, where Kesh is — and again, we’ll copy and paste this into our chat, so you don’t need to open anything — there’s this area called the Estatelands in the Verglaz Taiga, it’s where things start to get a little more green, it’s where things start to kind of get towards the Stel Nideo territory. Um, uh, there’s this little island that you see, kind of just under the word ‘The’ there. There’s like a– Do you see what I’m talking about?
KEITH (overlapping): Um.
AUSTIN: There’s like, kind of a bay, uh, and then like in– after the bay, like, to the west of the bay a little bit, there’s this big island. Um, you know, it’s– It’s not as big as Cruciat, let’s say, but it’s still sizeable. Um, uh, and…
KEITH: The little island right to the south of it?
AUSTIN: Yeah. Again, we don’t have– I can’t ping it for you, but it’s literally under the word ‘The’, it’s like, if you straight go down to the– to the, the shore.
KEITH (overlapping): Oh, that, okay. Yeah, yeah.
AUSTIN: It’s sizeable. It’s not nothin’, right?
ART: The one that looks like a little fist that’s gonna like, claw you, with its index finger.
AUSTIN: Sure.
JANINE: I was gonna say, it looks like that meme with the little girl running.
KEITH (overlapping): Yeah, it’s–
SYLVIA (overlapping): [bewildered] Sure?
[Someone clears their throat.]
KEITH: It seems like– It seems maybe like the middle finger, but I– eh, I can see it.
AUSTIN: I see what you’re saying. I do– Yeah, I see– I see the finger now, now that I have that orientation you’re talking about.
ART: You just don’t– You usually don’t claw with your middle finger.
AUSTIN: No.
KEITH: No, usually no.
AUSTIN: Maybe both fingers? Is what you claw with? Anyway, she explains–
KEITH (overlapping): This is cool. Does it look like it came out of that area of the shore, does it look like it was– it was in there?
AUSTIN (overlapping): Maybe. Yeah. Sure, sure.
KEITH (overlapping): And then broke out? That’s cool.
AUSTIN: And like, then rotated a little bit somehow? It’s wild.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Uh, anyway, she explains that she represents a group with similar interests. Um, and that they have been paying close attention to you; and that they would like to help you on your way. Um, she — as if it’s news — tells you about the forthcoming food shortage, which, thankfully, y’all are up on because of previous initiatives, because of what y’all did in the last– the last group, as Milli, A.O. and Gur made connections in Marengo, in Orion territory.
Um, so she’s, like, pleased to see that y’all know that stuff already. But with that food shortage coming, she tells you that you will need a place that’s under the radar, that has no issue with tax collectors coming in, where you can raise your own food, separate from part of what is coming, um, and where you will be able to build a foothold.
Um… And I’m trying to think, who is the one who tells you this? Or at what point? I think Gur makes himself very… quiet here, until this moment has left, uh, until this moment has passed. Uh, but we, the viewer, know from past conversations with Clementine Kesh, maybe with Valence — I don’t remember if Valence knows the specifics yet, but Gur would– would fill them in very quickly here. Um, Gallica represents a group called the Pact of Necessary Venture, which is a different–
DRE (overlapping): Ohhh.
AUSTIN (continuing): –revolutionary group. Um, that also–
ALI (overlapping): Hm.
AUSTIN (continuing): –wants to see a world without any princepts.
[JACK laughs softly.]
AUSTIN: Uh, wants to see the world without any thrones.
JACK (overlapping): Thrones to rubble.
AUSTIN: Thrones to rubble.
ALI: Hm.
AUSTIN: Thrones to tables, really, is really much more– ‘Burn thrones, build tables’ is much more their thing.
JACK (overlapping): Hm, yeah. True.
AUSTIN: They think that people from each Stel should represent themselves in an organized, uh, maybe not a democracy. [laughs] Um, but something like that, right? There should be representatives from each of the Stels, each Stel should have its own sovereignty, um, there could still be a Principality, but it’s not– there’s no king, there’s no princept, there’s no single executive ruler. Uh, and that is kind of their–
KEITH (overlapping): That’s something like a democracy. Aim lower, would ya?
AUSTIN: [laughs] Uh, it’s aiming where the ideology of the time is, right?
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Like, they can’t quite see– They’re all Elects. They’re the leadership, you know? They’re all very much– They’re very, very progressive inside of the set of people called Elects, um, so… So yeah, that is– the offer for them is: will you take this land from us in exchange for nothing? Uh, in exchange for… I, uh, we can make predictions based on this, but like, they want to support your effort. They want to be your patron, effectively, in your efforts on Partizan. Um, they have other issues elsewhere, they can’t– They can’t, you know, land forces here at this moment. Um, uh, but, uh, they find that you are kindred spirits and could help this kind of, you know, galaxy-wide revolution that they’re planning. Um…
KEITH: And this is sort of — and correct me if I’m wrong, but this is sort of the, the second secret war that the Curtain is fighting?
AUSTIN: Yes. This is, yes, this is– This is the main secret war that the Curtain is fighting, actually. This is like, the Curtain is–
KEITH: Right, sorry, I mean second– second to the visible war.
AUSTIN: Yes, correct. Yes, yes. Second to Kesh versus Apostolos, there’s also The Curtain versus The Pact of Necessary Venture — the Curtain being people who want to keep– keep, uh, the Principality… Uh, they’re, they’re– At this point, who knows what they want? The Curtain wants to be in control, obviously, but one of their supposed goals is to prevent the Principality from going towards where the Nobel homeworld is, where the True Divine is.
And the Pact of Necessary Venture has already attempted to do that. This is the ‘avaricious pact’ that was spoken about by the True Divine in that message that was broadcast across the entirety of Partizan so many months ago. Um… final thing here, before– before she leaves, is… Um, she, at some point, casually drops this and says, like:
AUSTIN (as Gallica): I know I’m on friendly ground because of the Divines that are on board already. I know you’ll respect Elects.
AUSTIN: Uh... And that’s all. [audibly grinning]
KEITH: That’s one more Divine than I think I knew was on board.
AUSTIN: Sure is. Everyone should have known–
KEITH (overlapping): Or one plus.
AUSTIN (continuing): – that Gur Sevraq’s Future is here. Um, but we don’t know– Uh, Future, which Gur Sevraq stole from the Pact of Necessary Venture. Um… but we did not know that there was a second Divine on board.
ALI (overlapping): Hm.
AUSTIN: Or a third, or however many there are. Um, uh… So, something to think about as… As I light fires. [typing sounds in the background] And so yes, this is the crossroad: will the kingdom accept the aid of the Pact of Necessary Venture, who is able to provide you with a secure island to expand your operation and ensure that you have food during the crisis?
DRE: Hm.
AUSTIN: It’s a long one.
KEITH: That solves something that I was going to order the kingdom to do, which is to steal MREs from, uh, from different Stel military outposts.
AUSTIN: Will the kingdom accept the aid of the Pact of Necessary Venture?
AUSTIN: And I think that– that Gallica kind of just like, returns to her ship, and when she does, she does not walk back across the frozen sea. Um, when the conversation is done, and people, like, begin to escort her to the doors, she says:
AUSTIN (as Gallica): I’m fine.
AUSTIN: And like, snaps her fingers, and light sort of like consumes her from the top and the bottom, like, as if it’s like closing in on her? Like, there’s like a beam of light from the top and the bottom that closes in to the middle, and she’s like teleported away. And that makes you wonder if she was ever even on board? [laughs softly] Or if she was always a strange light projection from… from the Divine Present? Um, you’re not sure.
So, yes. Will the kingdom accept the aid of the Pact of Necessary Venture in the form of a secure island from which, uh, Millenium Break can expand their operation and farm food safe from the crisis?
AUSTIN: Uh... I think that that’s the set, yeah. Boom. Okay. Uh, I can– I can frame a scene immediately here, with Gur, Apparatus, uh, Gucci, um, who else would be– I guess– Who else is in that group of people who feel like decision-makers at this point? Sovereign Immun– I think this is a big table. I think we’ve built a big table. Um, Sovereign Immunity is there.
ART: Oh, now it’s getting more confusing. I’m beginning to see the… the objections. If we’re building tables– [The rest is unintelligible.]
KEITH (overlapping): Thank you. Yeah.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Oh my god. [laughs softly]
AUSTIN (as Gur): Absolutely not. We have to say no to this. There’s no–
KEITH (as Apparatus Aperitif): Okay.
AUSTIN (as Gur): There is no offer good enough to work with them. [sighs]
AUSTIN: Who else knows? Valence should be here, too. I’ve realized Gur would not have– not have not invited Valence, the one person who knows who these people are, to this.
KEITH: I think we sh– we also have a smattering of the sort of, uh… legislative coalition here.
AUSTIN: Yeah. The various groups of– Yeah, totally. Yeah, Jesset might be here. Um, you know, definitely, definitely. Um…
AUSTIN (as Gur): This is a group that– that is… will promise us the world and deliver us only the world on fire. And we will be in the fire.
JANINE (as Gucci): Well, that was implied. It’s… yeah.
KEITH (as Apparatus, overlapping with JANINE): The second half is important.
AUSTIN (as Gur): Well, see, different responses.
DRE (as Valence): Maybe we should say yes.
[AUSTIN exhales audibly, someone snorts, ART laughs.]
AUSTIN (as Gur): Valence, why did– To what end?
DRE (as Valence): Well, first: to be able to give food to people. And second: keep them close.
JANINE (as Gucci): That is also what I was thinking. When your enemy invites you to a dinner party, you don’t say no.
AUSTIN (as Gur): They’re not inviting us to their dinner party, Gucci. They’re inviting us to their– to their house, to live there. To live under their terms. We’ve never been to this place. We don’t know if it will be surveillanced, we don’t know if it will be a trap. And we don’t know if the people who live there will be loyal to us or to them.
KEITH (as Apparatus): I guess I don’t– I guess I don’t... I guess I don’t know them as a group well enough to have had such an immediate reaction either way. They’re at war with people we’re at war with, aren’t they?
AUSTIN (as Gur): And if they had their way, they would also be at war with Valence’s people, and everyone else in the Scutum-Centaurum arm. Centaurus arm. Centaurum? Scutum-Centaurus arm. I know the name, you don’t need to correct me.
KEITH (as Apparatus): No, you got there.
AUSTIN (as Gur): I did. This was a fleet that was stopped, this is a fleet that was– or, this is an organization that had a fleet waiting to colonize an entire arm of the galaxy, from which they could build support. Now that they don’t have that support, they’re coming to us. And when I say ‘build support’, I mean conquer and– and exploit.
KEITH: Apparatus is passing out gum during this, to everyone who wants one.
AUSTIN (as Gur, overlapping): Thank you. I appreciate it.
JANINE (as Gucci): Then my question would be… If we say no, what do they do now that they know where we are? They’ve been here, they… you know. Do they entertain us as a threat to a common enemy that can… that can maybe destabilize the area enough for them to swoop in anyways?
AUSTIN (as Gur): [exhales] Yes. Probably.
AUSTIN: And I’ll make that prediction.
JANINE (as Gucci, overlapping): And then we’ve gotten nothing out of it.
AUSTIN: [hums in agreement] Um, if we say no, um… If– If we say no here, they will reveal our location to the five Stels. And Gur, like, lowers his head, and um… and I think, feels like, shook a little bit here.
AUSTIN (as Gur): Just don’t move without... care. Don’t trust them at their word. I’ve said my piece.
JANINE (as Gucci): We don’t have to build a– build a spy school there or anything, you know. We can just have farms.
AUSTIN: Okay. That is my scene. Um… Any other scenes or reactions here? Um, a thing that would be good to touch on here is this food crisis slowly beginning. And I can give you a little more color on it, which is: there is… There is, at this point, some sort of plague, some sort of, like… something is eating away at certain crops across the planet. Um, and one of the early… one of the early very surprising things about it is that it seems to have– it seems to have done something really, really weird, which is: it’s, um… It started as a digital plague. And it leapt. It’s like, the farming equipment was infected? With a virus? And then that farming equipment spread it to the wheat. So, just some background color to play with as we– [chuckles] as we continue to decide whether or not we want to work with these people.
KEITH: Uh, I have a reaction.
AUSTIN: Sure.
KEITH: Um, I think that… uh, Aperitif gathers the… uh, the pirates, and orders them to stop their various raids and work with, um… whoever is running missions that have them prioritize raiding military installations for military rations.
AUSTIN: Okay. So that is like, your immediate thing here is starting to– This is big. This is, like, bigger than it even may seem, right? Because we’ve hit ships in transit, but now we’re hitting ground targets, right?
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Um, interesting. Okay. Um… I like that. I’m gonna make a note of it so that we remember that this is happening. Uh… ‘Started raiding military bases for rations.’ Okay.
KEITH: And whatever. But, rations.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah, yeah, yeah. But– yeah. I gotcha. Yeah, hm-hm. Um… Also, as a reminder, Touchstones, during their scenes, can also place tokens based on how they feel about these things. [inhales and exhales] Who’s up? Who has an idea here?
JANINE: It’s tough, ‘cause like sometimes I wanna do a scene, but it has nothing to do with the order that I would wanna give.
AUSTIN: Let’s start with what the scene is that you’re interested in. We should always start with bonds and see if we can work back to the crossroad. You know, this is, like, a thing that’s in the air, in a certain way, so… What is the– What is the scene you wanna do?
JANINE: I think we need to have, like, a Gucci/Clem scene, right?
AUSTIN: I do too.
JANINE (overlapping): I think we’re there.
AUSTIN: I mean, part of the– part of the reason why I think we’ll still be able to wrap back around to this crossroad is: Clem is one of three people on board who understands what the Pact of Necessary Venture is, because she got a huge lore-dump about them from Cas’alear in the last Rapid Evening downtime.
JANINE: Right.
AUSTIN: So she might have an opinion about all this. What does this– Frame it for me. Is it in the brig? Is it… I mean, probably, I guess. [laughing] I guess so.
JANINE (overlapping): Um… yeah. [laughs]
AUSTIN: Sorry Clem.
JANINE: Yeah, it’s kind of a different kind of move if it’s like, ‘bring– bring Clem… bring the prisoner Clementine Kesh to me.’ Um, no, I think–
[AUSTIN snorts.]
JANINE (continuing): I think it’s probably in the brig. I think it’s like, um… You know, the scene I want it to be is that Gucci shows up with, like, a bottle of nail polish and a nail file.
[DRE giggles.]
AUSTIN (overlapping): Oh, love it.
JANINE (overlapping, continuing): And maybe some like, almond oil. You know.
[AUSTIN laughs softly.]
JANINE: Just like, treat your friend while you pump her for information. Friend, quote unquote.
JACK (as Clem): Thank you.
JANINE: Um, so I kind of imagine this is, Gucci has like pulled a stool up to the… bars?
[ALI laughs.]
AUSTIN: Love it.
JANINE: Or possibly the slot, the laser slot that food would go through? I don’t know what our brig looks like, I don’t know how… sci-fi we are here.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Y’all– You’re in control. You know, probably not laser slots, ‘cause lasers are pretty rare here. Remember, the last laser weapon we saw was like, it has to charge up for a minute before it shoots, even, so…
JANINE (overlapping): Yeah, sure. Maybe it’s– Maybe it’s like mesh?
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah!
JANINE (continuing): Maybe it’s like a metal mesh, just for the sake of being different.
AUSTIN: Yeah, I like this.
JANINE: Um, but there’s like a slot, so– to like, put a meal tray on. But Gucci’s like:
JANINE (as Gucci): Put your– put your hands here. I’ll do your nails.
AUSTIN: [amused] Do you do that, Clem?
JACK: Uh, I think so.
[ALI laughs softly.]
AUSTIN: What color are the nails? I need to know details.
JANINE: Gucci brings two colors for Clem to choose from. One of them is orange, and the other one is, I wanna say, uh… like a very light sky-blue.
AUSTIN: Can you talk to me about the color story of… of these colors?
[JACK laughs.]
JANINE: Do you wanna know how aggressive the orange is?
AUSTIN: I would love to know how aggressive the orange is.
JANINE: Um, it’s probably edging towards coral. There’s a bit of softness to it.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Okay.
JANINE (continuing): It’s not straight up, like… It’s not a straight up like vegetal kind of orange. It’s– It’s got a little bit of, you know, a little bit of… of red-pink in there.
JACK (as Clem): Uh, I don’t care. You can– You can choose.
[ALI makes a soft ‘mmm’ sound.]
JANINE: [laughing softly] I just heard Ali whimper.
[ALI laughs.]
AUSTIN (overlapping): I know.
KEITH (overlapping): Don’t ‘mmm’ Clem!
[JANINE laughs.]
ALI (overlapping): [still laughing] I just think it’s very sad!
[SYLVIA laughs.]
ALI (continuing): It’s a very clear point of Clem’s state of mind and I feel bad about it. [laughs]
JANINE: Um, I think...
AUSTIN (overlapping): Criminals gotta stick together.
JANINE: Gucci goes for the blue but does an orange French tip on the accent nails.
[AUSTIN hums appreciatively.]
JANINE (as Gucci): So, did you hear about our guest?
JACK (as Clem): No, I didn’t hear about anything.
JANINE: Uh… just to save me explaining, Gucci explains what happened and what was said.
JACK (as Clem): Absolutely not. What?
[AUSTIN laughs.]
JANINE: Gucci’s eyebrows shoot up her forehead. Shoot up.
JACK (as Clem, overlapping): Who do they think they are? [indignant] Honestly, I step down for two, three weeks, and we start making deals with the Pact? Who do they think they are?
JANINE (as Gucci): They… Who’s they here? Who does who think they are?
JACK (as Clem): I don’t know who you’ve got in charge. Who are you working with now, Gucci?
JANINE (as Gucci): Uh, there’s a– there’s a, um… council of sorts, we’ve got– got Apparatus, we’ve got, uh...
JACK (as Clem, overlapping): Who’s in charge?
JANINE (as Gucci): It’s a– It’s a group.
JACK (as Clem): Who m– Who calls the shots?
[AUSTIN laughs softly.]
JANINE (as Gucci): [pointedly] The group.
[KEITH laughs.]
JACK (as Clem): Oh, okay. But they all agree about that?
JANINE (as Gucci): That the group is in charge? Yes.
[AUSTIN laughs.]
JACK (as Clem): How’s that going for you?
JANINE (as Gucci): It’s interesting.
JACK (as Clem): And you’re in agreement about whether or not to work with the Pact?
JANINE (as Gucci): It seems like you have a little more information about the Pact than I do.
JACK (as Clem): I do. Don’t take the offer.
JANINE (as Gucci): You’re not going to enlighten me?
JACK (as Clem): They are exceedingly dangerous, and they would stand to destroy everything that you care about.
JANINE (as Gucci): Everything that I specifically care about, okay. I’m… surprised.
JANINE: I think Gucci is specifically surprised in a way that makes her take this a lot more seriously, too. Like, even though– even though Gur Sevraq said the exact same shit, uh… I think hearing Clementine be extremely opposed to like, a powerful ally that could be manipulated?
JACK (as Clem): We cannot manipulate them.
JANINE (as Gucci): Okay.
JACK (as Clem): If you– If you work with the Pact, you are signing a second deal with the devil. I hear Apparatus has something to do with Perennial.
JANINE (as Gucci): Oh, so that was the first one. Okay. I was gonna ask.
JACK (as Clem): Did you discuss that, by the way?
JANINE (as Gucci): Perennial?
JACK (as Clem): The presence of the Adversary on your council?
JANINE (as Gucci): Mh, no. Not per se.
JACK (as Clem): That hasn’t come up?
JANINE (as Gucci): We have a lot of adversaries right now.
JACK (as Clem): No, the Adversary.
AUSTIN: A common– A common way to refer to Perennial.
JANINE: [sighs] I feel like I’m missing something at the moment, could I get some–
JACK (as Clem, overlapping): Gucci–
AUSTIN: Perennial– Perennial, uh… So, Apparatus is part of a cult– uh, what is popularly called the Cult of Perennial.
JANINE (overlapping): Yes. Yeah, yeah.
KEITH (overlapping): It’s a religion.
AUSTIN: Perennial is– It is a religion that worships Perennial, who is responsible for the Perennial Wave, which regularly knocks out–
JANINE (overlapping): Yes, yes.
AUSTIN: Uh, yeah. Okay. Uh, and I think what Clem is saying is like: ‘Have you… have you even talked to– to Apparatus or to anyone about the fact that we have a devil-worshipper running this place right now?’ That’s my read. Clem, if I’m wrong about that…
JACK: Yeah, no, absolutely.
JANINE (as Gucci): I mean, if someone’s good enough to invite here in the first place, then why are they not also good enough to help govern? They’re here.
JACK (as Clem): I wouldn’t know, I didn’t invite them.
[AUSTIN laughs softly.]
JANINE (as Gucci): Well, you could’ve kicked them off while you were still presiding, but… okay, um…
JACK (as Clem): Gucci, thank you for coming. And thank you for the nail polish. I’m sorry I was shitty about it, it’s– I– I’ve got a lot on my mind. [sighs] You’re being led, Gucci. You think you’ve got a seat at the table? You’re walking behind them. First with Apparatus and whatever it is they’re planning. What about when the next Wave hits and Icebreaker Prime shuts down? And then with the Pact… You’re signing away more and more of yourself to these people. It’s a little disappointing.
AUSTIN: Whoof.
[JANINE laughs softly.]
JANINE: Um… I think Gucci actually probably laughs, like a little bit less than I did?
AUSTIN: [laughing softly] Uh-huh.
JANINE: But I think it is again like an– like an eyebrows up, like, ‘alright, Clem’. Uh… there’s something else that I need out of this scene, but I can’t really put my finger on what it is.
AUSTIN: Clem, are you making any predictions here?
JACK: Yeah, um… If yes… Uh, are we due a Perennial Wave?
AUSTIN: Um, sure. We’re always due, it’s not on schedule.
JACK: Oh, it’s not– It’s not like tides?
AUSTIN: It is, but it isn’t, right? Like, it is–
JACK (overlapping): The window for the tide is quite wide.
AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah.
JACK: Sure, okay, uh...
AUSTIN (overlapping): People do the thing you just said, which is like, ‘are we due?’ But sometimes– It’s less like– It’s less like tides, even though that’s like a common way to talk about it, um, it’s more like the weather, right? Where it’s like–
JACK (overlapping): Oh, sure. Yeah.
AUSTIN (continuing): Yeah, it’s storm season, but like, sometimes it’s a light storm season, sometimes it’s very bad, and sometimes the storm hits when it’s not supposed to.
KEITH: Right. Even when it’s sunny, it always will eventually rain.
AUSTIN: Right.
JACK: Ugh, what a mood.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Which is– which is– And that is, that is, what you just said, Keith, is the Metronomi– that’s Metronomica.
KEITH (overlapping): Yeah.
AUSTIN (continuing): The thing you just said was, ‘even when it’s sunny, it will always inevitably rain’ is how they think about history, right? So it’s like yeah, even though it’s an empire right now, it will be rubble and revolution will hit it. It’s gonna happen again and again and again, and again and again, like, it happend with OriCon, it happened with the Twilight Mirage, fuckin– This shit just keeps– It– We (drawn out) know the literal history of Kesh–
[ALI laughs.]
KEITH (overlapping): Well, I have… I have something–
AUSTIN (continuing): Kesh literally lived in cycles, right? So, like...
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: It’s– It’s gonna happen again.
KEITH: And I have– I have something on this maybe for later. I hope I’m not out of bounds with it, but we’ll get– We’ll maybe get there, I don’t know. I have it in my head at least.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Okay. Okay. Anyway, so, prediction.
JACK: Uh, I think, if yes, Perennial hits Icebreaker hard.
AUSTIN: Huh. Is that a… Are you playing the Wave here? I’m– I’m not taking this away from you, I’m curious if you see it as a causal thing or a… a… it’s just in the air that way?
JACK: God, I…
AUSTIN (overlapping): Like, what– What about doing this– Or, I’m– It might be that we are currently authoring something about the way the Wave works. Which I’m fine with.
JACK (overlapping): That’s true. Without necessarily noticing– or like, consciously doing it, you mean?
AUSTIN: Without Clem–
JACK: Or without knowing quite what we are authoring?
AUSTIN: [audibly grinning] I mean, I have a read on what it is and know how to build on it, is what I’ll say. Um…
JACK: [laughing softly] Okay.
AUSTIN: But like, the idea that this would hit only if we make this decision… is interesting and shifts–
JACK (overlapping): Hm. I like that quite a lot, actually.
AUSTIN (continuing): And shifts the way we think about the wave, right?
ALI: Right, it characterizes it.
JACK (overlapping): Is there an–
AUSTIN: It characterizes it, exactly Ali, yes.
JACK (overlapping): Yeah. Is there an extent–
AUSTIN (continuing): Which I’m not opposed to.
JACK (overlapping): Well, that’s– that’s what I was gonna ask, is like: do we want to keep the Wave more traditionally implacable? I think it can still be implacable and have a character, but it’s whether or not we want to go into like… I don’t know how committed you are to like–
AUSTIN: Let’s do it.
JACK (continuing): The Wave doesn’t– Okay, yeah, sure.
[ALI laughs softly.]
AUSTIN (overlapping): No, I’m only as committed as a good idea– until a good idea blows my– my, you know, principles away.
[JACK laughs softly.]
AUSTIN: Um… Uh… I’m a Cult– I’m a member of the Cult of Perennial. Everything changes.
[SYLVIA chuckles.]
AUSTIN (continuing): And I think that that is– Maybe that’s actually part of it, right, is like… This would indicate a change in the way the Wave works in a weird way that maybe no-one on board understands, right?
JACK: Sure.
AUSTIN (continuing): Up until now, this has not been– Or maybe only Apparatus gets it if this happens, right? It’s like, ‘oh, shit!’ That’s very interesting.
KEITH (overlapping): Oh, um–
JACK: That this was reactive.
AUSTIN: Right.
KEITH: The– Being– Being able to be predicted [stammers] pret– precipitating an event like that is what–
AUSTIN: Would be new for the Perennial Wave.
KEITH: Right, it’s not… It’s not a random thing that comes when it comes but it’s always gonna come.
AUSTIN (overlapping): And sudden– If it’s–
KEITH (continuing): It’s something that can react to an event.
AUSTIN: To an event in a way that seems like it’s judgement or something, is not– is not– Or maybe not even judgement, just reaction, right? Even if it’s just like, the way you drop a ball and it falls, that is not how the Perennial Wave has worked before. And in fact, historically, the Principality has invested a lot of money into trying to figure out how to use the Perennial Wave. We know–
KEITH: Right.
AUSTIN (continuing): I guess it’s not just– It’s not just them, um, because we know that, um, the Cult of– The Cult of Perennial, uh, Metronomica, does some sort of weird occult ritual magic stuff with the– with the Perennial Wave, has– Does have some ability to play with it and do shit that we haven’t necessarily seen yet, but, so we’ll keep that in mind.
And we’ve talked about the Sable Court understanding the Perennial Wave in that way, but maybe not being experts at it. Y’know, they mostly do the shit with the, uh, cool, um, gems from… from Columnar territory. But we know that people do talk about the Perennial– And, and Valence. Valence, of course, has done Perennial Wave shit before, right? So we know that it’s something that can be played with. But this would– And I think maybe all of those people would understand that if this did happen, if this did occur, they could– There are people who would sense that something different is happening there.
So, if yes, the Perennial Wave will temporarily shut down? Or more permanently?
JACK: [inhales] Um… I think for an indefinite period.
AUSTIN: Okay.
JACK: My original thing was ‘the Perennial Wave hits Icebreaker Prime hard’, but I think, like, shutting it down is a– is a clearer way of describing that.
AUSTIN (continuing): Yeah. Also if it goes that way then we do get the dope thing of it like, being shut down in the bay of this new territory we’ve taken, which is sick.
JACK: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Anyway. Alright.
JANINE: Um, can I...
AUSTIN (overlapping): Gucci, back to you. I was trying to give you some space there, to figure out what the thing you needed was.
JANINE (overlapping): Yeah. Um, I think the thing I need is that like, sort of, you know, Gucci finishes doing Clem’s nails and they finish having that conversation that is, um, a lot of Gucci listening and being kinda like ‘hmm, okay’. Um… And I think like, as Gucci is packing up, um, and like, you know, turning and like putting the stool back against the wall or whatever, um… I think she turns back to Clem and is like:
JANINE (as Gucci): Can I just ask you one thing real quick before I go?
JACK (as Clem): Of course.
JANINE (as Gucci): The… The Rapid Evening thing. What was the evening?
JACK (as Clem): I’m sorry?
[AUSTIN laughs softly.]
JANINE (as Gucci): When you named your group the Rapid Evening, what was the evening? To you, what did you… What was the evening that you were, you know?
AUSTIN: Clem, do you just fully not get this?
JACK: I mean, it’s tough, right, because like, did Clem name the Rapid Evening because of– because of the traditional Kesh black ops squad called the Rapid Evening? It’s hard to know whether or not– I had thought Clem came to this idea… secondhand.
AUSTIN: The Rapid Even– The name ‘the Rapid Evening’?
JACK (overlapping): Yeah.
AUSTIN (continuing): I think that you knew that they were cool Kesh heroes, is the way we talked about it in that conversation so long ago.
JACK: Right.
AUSTIN: But you didn’t know– [stammers] I think, Gucci, you’re hitting a thing that Clem does not know, which is like… That is part of why they were called the Rapid Evening, was, there was some– that– I’ll let you take it away.
JANINE: I mean, do you want me to unravel the whole thing or no?
AUSTIN: It’s up to you. It’s a cool moment.
JACK: I think Clem is just giving– giving her a blank look.
JANINE (as Gucci): You know, it used to mean something. The Rapid Evening, it was a concept, it was… It wasn’t just words, Clem.
JACK (as Clem): Go on.
JANINE (as Gucci): It wasn’t just words, and when the meaning of those words came to pass, they had to change their name. That’s how much those words meant. So I was wondering if you took those– If you took that name, if you took those words, what did those words mean to you? Because to the Rapid Evening they meant enough that… [sighs] They meant enough that when the evening came, they started looking to the horizon.
JACK (as Clem): Gucci. This is– This is a lot to take in.
[AUSTIN laughs.]
JACK (as Clem): Thank you for telling me. I– I understand why you’ve told me this. And I’m very grateful for– that you would bring it to me, especially at a moment of crisis like this. I had been wondering where Saint Dawn had gone. You know, I’d been thinking of Gucci Garantine up there with a clipboard and a pen, listening to some council table… But the Rapid Evening... Yes, I’m sure you’ll do great. I’m sure you’ll do fantastically. Just remember what I said: they are not to be trusted. You are being led.
JANINE (as Gucci): Clem, I didn’t tell you anything. [amused] I just asked you what the words meant.
JACK (as Clem): No, no, I know. I know. No, we’re on the same page.
[SYLVIA laughs softly.]
AUSTIN: Oh, Clementine Kesh. So, to be extremely clear, what was once the Rapid Evening became Horizon, the group that Gucci Garantine operates on Partizan. Uh, and is operating throughout– throughout Principality space, but the Partizan branch is Gucci’s thing.
JACK: And as far as Clem is concerned, this is a link to a, uh… As far as Clem’s concerned, this is a link to a Kesh-influenced radical group that Gucci still has some level of control over.
AUSTIN: Right. Is this– Is Clem’s read on this, like, ‘You’re still loyal to Kesh! I knew it.’
JACK: Or, like, ‘You’re loyal to us, to what we are trying to do.’
AUSTIN (overlapping): Right, to what we are– Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
JACK: ‘We are the Rapid Evening.’
AUSTIN: Right. ‘Oh wow, we’ve always been– we’ve always been on the same side!’ Yeah, uh-huh.
[JANINE laughs softly.]
JACK: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Fucking Clemetine Kesh. Unbelievable. Alright, um… Who else has a scene?
DRE: Um… I think I would like to have a scene with Valence and Sovereign Immunity.
AUSTIN: Where is it and what are you doing?
DRE: Um… I don’t know, where– where’s– Does Sovereign Immunity have like, an office in the commissary? Like what–
ART: I mean, the whole– the whole commissary is basically the office, right? It’s… It’s very crowded, and come– come– come talk.
DRE: Okay.
ART: Always five many too people. Always five people in the hallway.
[AUSTIN and DRE laugh softly.]
DRE: I wasn’t sure if Sovereign Immunity had like, you know, the Fonzie tell– is like, the bathroom is his office, and he can go in there and tell people to leave. I didn’t know if Sovereign Immunity had like a Fonzie office somewhere in the commissary.
ART: No, but isn’t it weird there was a time that like, ‘yeah, he meets with people in the bathroom’ was like, the coolest thing you could do?
[AUSTIN and DRE laugh.]
KEITH: Well it’s away from prying eyes!
ART (overlapping): And like, a public bathroom.
AUSTIN: Hm-hm.
DRE: Yeah.
ART: Oh, sorry, Austin. I– It was away from me– I was like–
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah, I could tell. You’re good.
ART: I was pacing before.
AUSTIN: Hm-hm.
DRE: Um…
ART: I mean, if Valence is coming to talk, there’s certainly– [stammers] We’ll make a seat.
DRE: No, I think– I think it’s fine. Um… I think Valence comes to talk and they’re also– You said that– Is it that the monks that Sovereign Immunity is like, connected with, they– are they like– do they brew something?
AUSTIN: Yeah, they make a– They make beer. They’re– They’re brewing monks. They’ve probably converted some space here to do some on-board brewing. That feels right.
ART: Especially as the food sup– Well, as the food supplies are getting scarcer, especially if the virus is in the wheat, it’s, uh, we’re probably running low on a long enough timeline, but it’s a brewed beverage, so it’s a lagging indicator.
AUSTIN: Hm-hm.
KEITH: Switch to cider pretty soon.
DRE: I think Valence shows up drinking a beer.
KEITH (overlapping): Sidra. Switch to Si’dra.
[ALI snorts.]
AUSTIN: Love it.
ART: A d– Like a different beer?
AUSTIN (overlapping): It is–
DRE (overlapping): No.
ART (continuing): It’s like, you show up at the Budweiser factory with a bottle of–
DRE: No, no, no. But like– No. Drinking one of those beers.
AUSTIN (overlapping): No. Drinking a– No. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
DRE: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
ART: Sure, sure, yeah.
AUSTIN: Uh, it is– It is–
KEITH: Are you currying favor with the beer choice?
ALI: Can I ask a very important question?
AUSTIN: Yes.
DRE: Hm-hm.
ALI: Um, which is, um. Do you have like, a little straw or a little sippy cup like Boba Fett does ‘cause you have a wolf mask? [laughs]
AUSTIN (overlapping): Thank you.
[DRE and KEITH laugh.]
ALI: [laughing] ‘Cause I need to know!
DRE: Yeah, sure, yes. Because that’s better.
[ALI laughs.]
KEITH: Sorry, does Boba Fett have a little sippy cup that I don’t remember?
ALI (overlapping): We can talk about this afterwards. Yes. [laughs]
ART (overlapping): Thank you, Keith.
AUSTIN (overlapping): We have to do this later. We have to. Do this later.
DRE (as Valence): Huh, well today I learned that I can’t get drunk, apparently. This tastes good, though.
[SYLVIA wheezes.]
ART (as Sovereign Immunity): I’m so sorry to hear that.
DRE (as Valence): [sighs] Okay, you’ve probably had to make deals with– Or maybe you didn’t. I don’t know, have you ever made deals with somebody that you hate?
[AUSTIN and ART laugh.]
ART (as SI): Yeah.
DRE: And I– [wheezes] I think Valence like, stops for a minute and is like ‘oh’.
DRE (as Valence): Well, like, but before that one.
ART (as SI): Yeah, um… Uh-huh. I’ve worked for two generations of horrible people.
DRE (as Valence): Did you ever–
AUSTIN (overlapping): Right, Valence doesn’t know that you worked for Clem’s mom, that’s true.
DRE: Hmm.
ART: Oh yeah. Well, it’s– Yeah, it’s probably not part of the story.
DRE (as Valence): Did you do it because you wanted to or because you had to? Or…
ART (as SI): Um, I did it because it was my duty, and then I did it because it was how I thought I could be free.
DRE (as Valence): So this whole Pact of Necessary Venture… They have tried to come after my people. I mean, they want to colonize where I’m from.
ART (as SI): Hm.
DRE (as Valence): And there’s a part of me that wants to say: ‘Yes, let’s work with them, and that way we can keep an eye on them.’ And… there’s the other part of me that is… horrified. And I thought maybe if I could get drunk one of those would get louder and one would get quieter, but it’s not– It’s not working.
ART (as SI): I could see the hands of House– of Stel Kesh the entire time they were throwing me in prison and locking the door. And it didn’t help at all.
DRE (as Valence): That… helps.
ART (as SI): I’m so glad. That’s what I’m here for.
DRE: Uh, and I think that’s the scene.
AUSTIN: Are you making a prediction based on that?
DRE: Um, yes, and I’m trying to figure out the wording.
AUSTIN: Okay. We can come back to it if you need.
ART: I would like to place a token on, uh, yes.
AUSTIN: A– A positive token? Or a negative taken– uh, negative token.
ART (overlapping): No, a bad token. I can only place a negative token, yeah.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Negative token. I’m actually just gonna make a frowny face.
ART: I don’t understand this Naruto gif (pronounced jif) I’m looking at right now.
AUSTIN: Don’t say it like that again in my presence.
[ALI snorts. KEITH laughs.]
ART: That’s the correct way to say it.
AUSTIN: We’re gonna have to keep moving.
ALI: [sighs] Um–
KEITH: [clears throat] It’s from the– It’s about the Boba Fett thing.
AUSTIN: Yeah, I found the– Yeah, it’s fine, we’re gonna keep moving. But enjoy the excerpt of this book that I posted.
ALI: Hm-hm.
DRE: Alright, I got my perspect– I got my prediction.
AUSTIN: Hm-hm?
DRE: Uh, if yes, the religion of the Nobel will slowly spread on Partizan.
AUSTIN: Ooh. How is that? What is the– Is that because Valence will be spreading it?
DRE: Yes.
AUSTIN: Interesting. Phew.
DRE: As basically like, a direct counter–
AUSTIN: Yeah.
DRE (continuing): –to the Pact of Necessary Venture.
AUSTIN: [does a chef kiss sound] Mwah. I love it.
DRE: Evangelizing, basically.
AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hm-hm. Okay, uh, that is Valence done. We still need Milli, Sovereign Immunity, Clem and Broun. Reactions or scenes.
ALI: I have a scene. Um...
AUSTIN (overlapping): Sure. What’s up, Broun?
ALI: Yeah, I– [laughs] Um… Yeah, I’ve been trying to think about, like, what Broun’s priorities are right now? Um… The structure of this game is so that Broun is sort of working on their own things to the side.
AUSTIN: Hm-hm.
ALI: Um, what we see on screen is Broun still sort of trying to like... [sighs] Um, make people think positively about them so they can try to get things [laughs] from them.
AUSTIN: Hm-hm.
ALI: Um, but like–
KEITH: Wait, they’re trying to do what?
ALI: Like, trying to– Trying to just make people… Just be a person about town, you know. Um…
KEITH: [laughing] Okay.
ALI: [laughing] So that if, you know, if there are any opportunities come up, if someone needs to send someone to space, they can be like, ‘hi, yes, me’ or ‘hey, give me twelve dollars for a spaceship’ or whatever.
AUSTIN: [bemused] Uh-huh.
ALI: Um, [laughs] so… And then I think on the flip side of that is that, like, Broun has also been super bought in in the Semaphore stuff. Um, I keep coming back to this, but I think that that’s like, a lasting effort to reach out to people outside of Millenium Break. To get them to communicate within that system–
AUSTIN (overlapping): Right.
ALI (continuing): –and it’s like, you know…
KEITH: Pirate radio.
ALI: Right, right. Yeah, exactly. And it’s like, you know, attaching, um... different, uh, like, mechanical stuff to like radio towers and… and getting the word out that way.
AUSTIN: Hm-hm.
ALI: Um, and I think, like, through doing that, and through realizing this food shortage is something that’s kind of being talked about, um, I think that Broun wants to try to develop, like, farming areas on Fort Icebreaker? Um…
AUSTIN: Oh, interesting! Okay.
ALI: Yeah. Um...
AUSTIN: Like, like, hydroponic type stuff or whatever.
ALI: Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, like repurposing part of the refuse system, refuse center into like, a proper, um… What’s that called when you like, take your garbage and make it good?
KEITH: Compost.
ALI: Compost. [laughs]
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ALI: Things like that. And I think the scene actually is, um, Broun and Gucci in this case, because I think Broun could go to Valence but... believes that they need other people in their corner, because they don’t trust Valence. [laughs]
AUSTIN: Damn.
ALI: So… um...
DRE: I got you outta jail!
ALI: Well, you’re– You know… I’m still here. Um… [laughs] But, yeah, and I think– I think the um… the, like, thing about this scene is that it’s– It is very familiar for the characters despite everything that’s happened, it’s like Broun doing the thing that they’ve always done, which is like walking up to Gucci with like, blueprints and being like, ‘oh, I was thinking about doing this and I was, you know, wondering what you were thinking’ and yada yada. Um… Just sort of pretending that all of that is behind them without–
AUSTIN (overlapping): Uh-huh.
ALI (continuing): –it actually being there? Um… Yeah, like I said, I think it’s just Broun walking up to Gucci and being like:
ALI (as Broun): Yeah, I, um, I was looking at different ways that we could grow food on, uh, onboard. And I have these, um, sort of plans for different, uh, soil beds and ways that we can, um… [clicks tongue] Increase… efficiency of the waste that we’re getting rid of. Um, I just wanted you to take a look at it. Um… to get your thoughts.
ALI: And this, again, is to Gucci.
JANINE: Uh, I think Gucci takes a look and is like, ‘Oh, looks great, how much is it gonna cost me?’ Like, in the kinda joke-y, ‘ha ha, we have fun here’... Um…
[AUSTIN laughs.]
ALI: Hm-hm. [laughs softly]
JANINE: Her heart’s not like, a hundred percent in it, but… [laughs] Y’know…
[AUSTIN laughs harder and groans.]
JANINE: (continuing) It’s a little bit of a mood lightener for the whole, like, ‘uh, so jail was probably bad, welcome back’. Um… ‘Hope you got the flowers and liked them.’
[ALI laughs softly.]
JANINE: Uh… Let me–
ALI (as Broun): They were... lovely. It was a big, uh, help.
[JANINE laughs softly.]
JANINE (as Gucci): Um, I think this– This looks interesting and like it’d be quite helpful. Do you need me to help you back this, or… I think if you presented this, people would be very enthusiastic about it.
ALI (as Broun): Oh sure, yeah, I just wanted– I mean, you’re… Um, I mean I know that you can talk to the rest of the council or could make these decisions, so…
JANINE (as Gucci): I mean, you can talk to the rest of the council, too. That’s kinda the point of the council, right?
ALI (as Broun): Sure. Uh, yeah. You know, I just wanted your… opinion. Um, you’ve helped with stuff like this in the past before, so, uh…
JANINE (as Gucci): Yeah.
ALI (as Broun): Yeah.
JANINE (as Gucci): I think we should move forward with it.
ALI (as Broun): Cool! Well, um… Thanks!
AUSTIN: You won’t do anyone’s nails over here, I guess. Damn.
[JANINE and ALI laugh.]
JANINE (as Gucci): So you just– Do you want me to present this... myself? Or do you want–
ALI (as Broun): Uh, well, um… I mean, if– If you’re okay with it, I can maybe just go ahead and then… Um, I don’t know, I just– Like I said, I thought you would have notes or something, um, and you don’t, and that’s great. Uh, haha. So, yeah, I’ll talk to them.
JANINE (as Gucci): I mean, my notes would probably be that we’ll need people for this and space, but that’s… And a lot of stuff that’s–
ALI (as Broun, overlapping): Sure, right, space. Um, yeah, if you look on page 17–
JANINE (as Gucci): Hm-hm-
ALI (as Broun, continuing): –there’s suggestions of, uh, rooms that we can repurpose and um, I have a list of the, uh, the measurements of what we would be installing, so…
JANINE (as Gucci): You’ve put a lot of… Um, you’ve put a lot of– (breaking character) I was gonna say zest.
[ALI and JANINE laugh.]
JANINE (as Gucci): You’ve put a lot of thought into this, haven’t you?
ALI (as Broun): Well, it’s food.
JANINE (as Gucci): Yeah. But, you know, where’s… the angle?
ALI (as Broun): [bemused] Excuse me?
JANINE (as Gucci): I’m just curious.
ALI (as Broun): [sighs] Uh– Um…
JANINE (as Gucci): I’m not accusing you of anything, I’m just curious.
ALI (as Broun): No, it just seems like this is a problem that’s on a lot of people’s minds, so…
JANINE (as Gucci): And you wanna take care of it.
ALI (as Broun): Yeah!
JANINE (as Gucci): Sounds good.
ALI (as Broun): Well, thank you.
[KEITH laughs.]
ALI (as Broun): Um, but yeah, if that’s it I’ll get to work.
JANINE: Is the next step of this, like… Is this the thing I use my power to– to enact, actually, since I didn’t really use power with my scene?
AUSTIN: Sure. You can do Power stuff as much as you want to. If you’re in a scene, you can just do it.
JANINE: Um… Oh, okay.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JANINE: Uh… Okay, I– I mean, I think this is a thing that Gucci still, like, is going to honor the system in place and bring to Apparatus and everyone, but… it’s food.
[ALI chuckles.]
AUSTIN: Hm-hm. You eat it.
JANINE: You know, Broun has a point of like, it’s food. It would reduce our need to engage with the bad– the bad stuff.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JANINE: Um… We need it.
ALI (overlapping): Need. Yeah.
JANINE: People will be happy if it happens.
AUSTIN: Hm-hm.
KEITH: Right, right.
JANINE: I think Gucci makes a very strong sales pitch.
AUSTIN (overlapping): God, can I– Yeah, can I break my own rule about limited scenes just to have a quick Gur reaction, which is like seeing this and predicting that if no, we still have food because of this? Is anyone– Does anyone wanna object?
ALI (overlapping): Sure.
KEITH (overlapping): If it’s plus the… Plus the raids, we now have two different coverings.
JANINE (overlapping): Yeah.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Right, between those two things– Yeah, between those two things, I think that like, we get Gur, like, feeling increasingly relieved that– Like, I think specifically, there’s a degree to which that’s like, ‘Good. Look. I didn’t have to do shit!’
[ALI laughs softly.]
AUSTIN (continuing): ‘This is just working! You– This– It’s working!’
[ALI, JANINE and DRE laugh.]
AUSTIN (continuing): ‘People are responding to a crisis ahead of time by doing this stuff, this is great!’ So yeah, I’m gonna predict, um, that– That, um, we will still have the food we need to, uh, to continue because of initiatives by, uh– Who did the– Was Leap doing the raids? Uh, and Broun.
KEITH: Uh… It was– Apparatus was ordering the raids.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Apparatus ordered them, right right right.
KEITH: Um, but Leap and the pirates, and then some resources were moved away from, like, other missions. Towards…
AUSTIN: Yeah, less– Less getting guns, more getting MREs.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Alright.
JANINE: I’d also want to add that like, Thisbe’s real into this.
AUSTIN: Okay.
JANINE: Like, Thisbe, like–
ALI: [delighted] Oh, yay!
AUSTIN: That’s great. Love it. Alright!
JANINE: Instead of like, half-heartedly doing, like, moving boxes and like kinda participating in raids and just kind of doing what it feels like the people she’s familiar with and trusts are doing… This is like a thing that she, like, takes initiative with and that is very unlike her.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JANINE (continuing): Or at least– Not unlike her, but unlike what we usually see with her.
AUSTIN: Yeah. I think we get some, um, Mourningbride and, if you’re good with it, some… some Eiden Teak also, here, because like, the Sable Court knows how to work with limited space. It’s one of the things they do really well. You know, obviously they lived in a forest, so [laughing softly] it’s not the same as needing to make a farm on a ship–
ALI: [laughs] Right. Yeah.
AUSTIN (continuing): Um, but, in terms of like, how to conserve water, how to make sure there’s not a lot of waste, or how to make sure you’re reusing stuff, compost — they’re down on that. And so I think that they’re both probably really involved in this.
KEITH: Look, if you’re making pasta, use that water. Water the plants.
[ALI laughs.]
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah, exactly. It’s classic.
[SYLVIA groans.]
ALI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Um. Alright.
ALI: Um… Yeah.
DRE: I think in that montage there’s also a part where, like, Valence is there and is laughing for the first time in a long time.
AUSTIN: Damn, everyone loves… this.
DRE (overlapping): Because they… Well, they just get to, like, do work with Thisbe and Broun again, and it’s– it’s nice.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah… Yeah.
ALI: Aww, SBBR (pronounced sabre) just vibing.
KEITH: And it’s farming instead of murder.
[ALI laughs softly.]
AUSTIN: Instead of murder. Right, yeah. Exactly.
DRE (overlapping): [laughing] Yeah, exactly.
JANINE (overlapping): Or getting murdered.
AUSTIN: Uh, is Zo’la– Is Zo’la filming this stuff? Is Zo’la like, ‘and here are our sustainable… crops.’
DRE: Sure, that’s where the montage comes from, yeah.
ALI (overlapping): Oh, yeah.
AUSTIN: Right. [laughing softly] Okay, right, is this literally… a montage shows up on the Strand the next day, the– Which is what I’ve decided, internally we’re calling the Semaphore Palace System, is the Strand. Uh… Just now, I’ve decided this. Uh, and… And yeah, it’s just like, ‘Hey, everyone can check out this footage of… of everyone just coming together. Everyone’s– Everyone is–’
I mean, I guess Zo’la is not like, we’ve not positioned them as being like, a twee, um… like, Silicon Valley type, so like, what is the vibe of this montage? What is the music like? Uh, Dre?
DRE: Um… Oh, gosh… Um, very… Probably like, orchestral and grand.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Okay. Yeah.
DRE: It’s a car commercial.
AUSTIN: Okay. [wheezes] But it’s for food.
SYLVIA (overlapping): [groaning] Oh!
AUSTIN (continuing): It’s for our farms.
DRE (overlapping): Yeah.
AUSTIN: Love it. Incredible.
DRE: Hm-hm. Um, can I also make a prediction here, as a reaction to this scene?
AUSTIN: Yeah, totally.
DRE: Um…
AUSTIN: Why not? [keyboard typing sounds begin] This feels like a thing that we should– we should be… Yeah, working with.
DRE: Uh, so my prediction is: [keyboard typing sounds stop] if no, then Millenium Break begins actively bartering their technology, um… Black market is the wrong term, but basically like, through the markets that circumvent like...
KEITH: Grey markets.
[ALI chuckles.]
DRE (continuing): Blockades and tariffs and whatever.
AUSTIN: I think that’s still the black market. [keyboard typing sounds begin]
ALI: Yeah.
DRE: Sure, alright. [keyboard typing sounds stop] There we go.
AUSTIN: Uh... Uh-huh, love it. And can you sign it? [keyboard typing sounds] Yeah, thank you.
DRE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Uh, yeah, no, I love this. I love this so much. Uh, cool.
ALI: Um, I’ve also…
AUSTIN (overlapping): Uh, which also is a great build– Go ahead, you go ahead, what were you gonna say?
ALI: Oh, sorry, I was just gonna say I’ve put down a, um, Broun happy token on ‘no’.
AUSTIN: Okay.
ALI: Um, I think the– The, like, bigger picture here crossroad-wise is that, like, Broun has no idea what the Pact is. I think most people don’t know what that is or give a shit, but like…
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ALI (continuing): Enough of the… sort of anxiety about the decision has trickled down to people that they’re like, ‘Oh, we should figure this out on our own.’
AUSTIN: Right. Cool.
ALI: Um, so yeah.
AUSTIN: Um… alright.
ART: I don’t think there are happy tokens, I think you have to have it by putting a sad token on the other side.
AUSTIN: I believe you.
ALI: I’ve done… I’ve done happy tokens before, so we’re keeping it.
AUSTIN (overlapping): We’ve done happy tokens.
ART: Alright, we’re doing happy tokens?
ALI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: You wanna do a happy token, you can do a happy token.
ALI: I–
ART: No, I’ve already done a sad token, I’m not gonna... undo my tokens.
KEITH (overlapping): Hey, what’s a happy token but a sad token turned upside down, huh?
[ALI laughs softly.]
AUSTIN: That’s all.
ALI: I’m house-ruling happy tokens.
SYLVIA (overlapping): Really makes you think.
AUSTIN: Damn.
KEITH: I think in these times it’s– it’s important to smile.
[ALI snorts.]
AUSTIN: True.
[SYLVIA laughs.]
AUSTIN: Wow. Alright.
ALI: Come on down to the… Millenium Break orchard.
[AUSTIN laughs softly.]
SYLVIA: Live, laugh, love.
[ALI laughs.]
AUSTIN: God, we are slowly making a Bioshock setting.
[AUSTIN and ALI laugh.]
AUSTIN: There is going to be a gunfight in our orchard, in our on-board orchard.
ALI: Yessss.
KEITH: Don’t say that.
AUSTIN: It’s depressing.
ALI: Oh, please say that.
KEITH: I mean, you can say that there’s gonna be a gunfight, but don’t say we’re making a Bioshock setting.
[AUSTIN laughs.]
SYLVIA: Yeah. A little mean.
AUSTIN: Oh, well. We all have to be wary of our own excesses. [jokingly] All of us, just a few– a few bad years away from being Ken Levine. Um…
[SYLVIA makes an upset noise.]
KEITH: It– Honestly, it seems like– It seems like what we did was make a Bioshock setting in reverse.
AUSTIN: You’re right.
KEITH: We’ve been working backwards from the Bioshock setting to now.
AUSTIN (overlapping): From the– To now, yeah. Um, alright, so… We still need Milli, Sovereign Immunity, Clem… Uh, and we did Broun, so I can knock that one off. Boom. Milli, S.I. and Clem. Reactions, scenes.
SYLVIA: Oh, I actually have an idea.
AUSTIN: Mh-hm?
SYLVIA: Uh… I think Milli wants to talk to Gur.
AUSTIN: Okay.
SYLVIA: Because something that got mentioned during that presentation sort of stuck with her.
AUSTIN: Okay.
SYLVIA: Um...
SYLVIA (as Milli): Hey! So, you…
SYLVIA: I think, uh, by the way, just to set this, I think Milli’s just fi– Where would Gur be? Like, Gur’s just around people most of the time, right? [chuckles]
AUSTIN (overlapping): Gur’s around people a lot. Um, I think– Hm, puh, what time of day is it?
SYLVIA: I think it’s just like, midday, maybe Milli’s like, getting back from like a raid from the morning. Or the, like, night before that went long.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah. Yeah. Um… Then let’s have– Let’s have, um, let’s have Gur then, uh, helping you unload stuff from one of these ration raids, maybe. Um…
SYLVIA (overlapping): Yeah, okay, that’s–
AUSTIN (continuing): It’s like a– It’s like, a happy coincidence. It’s like, ‘oh, I happen to be on duty.’ Like, ‘I happen to– this is… my– my schedule put me here, it’s not a… I didn’t come here to see you.’ And he’s like:
AUSTIN (as Gur): Oh, Milli. It’s good to see you.
SYLVIA (as Milli): Hey. Uh… I actually had something I needed to ask you about.
AUSTIN (as Gur): Um… Open-eared, as always.
SYLVIA (as Milli): Um… Yeah, um, so you’re the only person I know with a Divine. Um…
AUSTIN (as Gur): [sighs]
SYLVIA (as Milli): Like… Okay, I know that it’s a little more complicated than that, it’s like… You’re– It’s like, for the cause or whatever, it doesn’t actually belong to you. Don’t worry. I’m not gonna– I’m not gonna blow up your spot.
AUSTIN (as Gur): I’m anything but an Elect, yes.
SYLVIA (as Milli): I… just… What Divine– other Divines could be here? ‘Cause the lady with the cool hair…
AUSTIN (as Gur): Yes.
SYLVIA (as Milli): She said Divines. Uh, and personally speaking, I don’t have a great track record with those. I’m already not super hot on this whole deal that’s been offered.
AUSTIN (as Gur): Yeah.
SYLVIA (as Milli): Um, and if there’s like, another godly war machine around here, I think that’s something we should know about.
AUSTIN (as Gur): You’re right. I was so caught up in thinking about food and the Pact… It slept my mind. It slipped my mind. It didn’t sl– It slept in my mind. The fact of the situation went to bed, it took a little nap, and you’ve risen it, [laughs softly] you’ve woken it in my mind. I’m woke now.
AUSTIN: Gur Sevraq 2020.
KEITH (overlapping, muffled): Beds not thrones.
SYLVIA: [laughs softly] God. Ugh.
AUSTIN: Um...
AUSTIN (as Gur): I… I don’t know which it could be, so much as, uh… It would be easier to list those it couldn’t be, because of how large they are. Divines are not all like Motion. Or maybe it’s more fair to say that many of them are exactly like Motion.
SYLVIA (as Milli): Right.
AUSTIN (as Gur): They move into whatever body they need. Some… fit in the– the scale of a Hollow, and others in a city, and others still in... a cup of coffee.
SYLVIA (as Milli): So, the answer is: it could be anywhere.
AUSTIN (as Gur): Unfortunately, yes. We should…
SYLVIA (as Milli): [somewhat sarcastically] Thanks, Gur.
AUSTIN (as Gur): [laughs softly] Uh, no. I– I– You’re welcome, but actually thank you, because now… We should prioritize this. Um… We should figure out where it is and ensure that we have no... surprises.
SYLVIA (as Milli): [small gasp] You know, maybe it’s the ghost!
AUSTIN (as Gur): It could be the ghost. [laughs] I hadn’t thought about– It could be the ghost. [chuckles] Hm.
SYLVIA (as Milli): I gotta– Okay, I gotta go talk to Leap about this.
KEITH: [sing-song] Ghost huuunt! Ghost hunt hunt hunt!
AUSTIN (overlapping): Ghost hunt, uh-huh. Um… I’ll make a prediction, I’m in this scene–
KEITH (overlapping): We’re gonna do a ghost hunt!
AUSTIN (continuing): I can make a prediction here.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Um… if no, hm… God, how do I wanna frame this? We locate the Divine before... it is too late.
SYLVIA: [softly] Okay.
AUSTIN: If yes, that won’t happen because Gur Sevraq will be spending all of that time trying instead to… um, deal with the Pact stuff and try to ensure that it’s the best version of that.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
KEITH: Too late for what?
AUSTIN: We’ll find out, won’t we?
[ALI chuckles.]
SYLVIA: Right, and then I guess my– Like, for my Touchstone thing–
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah.
SYLVIA (continuing): Milli’s whole vibe there is just very uneasy–
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah.
SYLVIA (continuing): –and like, feels very in the dark about a lot of this stuff.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah.
SYLVIA (continuing): And I think that a lot of people probably do, since a Divine showed up?
AUSTIN: Yeah! Definitely. Fair. Um… Alright.
ART: Um, so you’re only telling Leap about this?
SYLVIA: [amused] No, I think that’s the first person that she tells that it might be– she thinks it’s the ghost.
ART: Alright. Um...
SYLVIA (overlapping): I feel like it would get back to S.I. at some point. [chuckles]
ART: I also thought it was the ghost. Um… And with that additional information the reaction scene I would like to frame–
AUSTIN (overlapping): Uh-huh.
ART: –is Sovereign Immunity’s group with whoever else, honestly, anyone can put themselves in this scene, start like, leading little... excursions into deck seven.
AUSTIN: [amused] Uh-huh.
KEITH: Oh, Leap’s there.
ART (overlapping): And they’re very… Caution. They’re very– Not caution, not, um… Tentative, you know?
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ART: No one’s… You know, everyone– Everyone has a rope tied to the elevator, you know? Like… But it’s– It’s cautious of, um, exploratory–
AUSTIN (overlapping): [bewildered] Is that a saying?
ART: No, I made it up.
AUSTIN: Okay.
ART: I said that.
AUSTIN: [amused] Oh, okay.
ART: Um… That’s just– I think that’s how you would stay safe in this situation.
AUSTIN: Right, uh-huh.
ART: Um, tie a rope to the elevator.
[AUSTIN chuckles.]
ART: And then you go back.
AUSTIN: Alright. I love it.
ART (overlapping): Just little– little excursions into deck seven.
AUSTIN (overlapping): People are– Yeah, I love it, I love it, fantastic. Uh… Is this– Oh, you’re a Touchstone, not a– a Perspective, so you can’t make a prediction here, but I do love it. Alright. We’re back to Clem, then.
ART: People don’t like the ghosts, that’s– that’s my touchstone.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Is that your– Ooh, spooky!
ART: Ghooosts.
[AUSTIN chuckles.]
JACK: Hm. It’s tough, right, ‘cause I’m in the brig.
AUSTIN: Mh-hm.
JACK: I’m trying to think of like, what does Clem know about the situation? Which is that… I don’t know if Clem even necessarily– Oh, no no, she would know that, um, the Divine has come to make the deal. But that’s about it. All of this stuff with the orchard and the, you know, development of food supplies, presumably she doesn’t know about.
AUSTIN: Mh-hm. I bet she knows about the food shortage stuff, right? We’ve talked about there being… bars between different parts of the brig, and I bet even if there’s not necessarily other real prisoners at this point, which it doesn’t seem like there are– I bet there are small fights, people spend the night there. You know what I mean? Like...
JACK (overlapping): Sure, like, word comes in.
AUSTIN (continuing): Though, actually, I bet with the– with the night mayor, maybe that stuff is– is actually deescalated in a different way, you know?
KEITH: Sorry, what– what’s deescalated in a different way? The prison?
AUSTIN: Yeah, the– Like, I was basically saying that like, some people get drunk and get into fights, and I bet still some people get into the– go to the brig for the night–
KEITH (overlapping): Oh, got it.
AUSTIN (continuing): –and that that is how news filters out. But actually, we don’t even need that. Like, Clem, you have a guard. And I bet at least one of the guards is like, [in a deeper voice] ‘You hear about this shit?’
[ALI and JACK laugh softly.]
JACK: Yeah. ‘Oh, they’re building an orchard!’
AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah.
JACK: Um… Yeah, uh…
KEITH: Ooh, uses apples for cider. Relic from before.
JACK: I think it’s– I think it’s just a– I think it’s just a– the equivalent of like, a time passes beat. I don’t know that Clem has a scene here, necessarily, I think the– The reaction that she has is fear of the discovery.
AUSTIN: Mh-hm.
JACK: Um, I think that she thinks that, or she hopes that Gucci– her words will have gone through to Gucci, one way or another. Um… But I think that she recognizes that if they turn down the Divine… Clem can put two and two together of the consequences of turning down the Pact.
AUSTIN: Right. [small pause] Is there–
JACK: Hm.
AUSTIN: Yeah, hm.
JACK: I’m trying to think if there’s a prediction related to this. ‘Cause I’m just– I’m thinking about how it’s very interesting that Clementine Kesh is in a jail cell aboard Icebreaker Prime.
AUSTIN: Mh-hm.
JACK: Which means that were it to be discovered, Clem’s actually in a pretty good position for herself?
AUSTIN: In what way?
JACK: The princess of–
KEITH (overlapping): Wait, are you saying you’d no longer look like you’ve done this?
AUSTIN: [amused] Right.
JACK: Yeah, the princess of Kesh goes missing...
AUSTIN: Hah, right…
JACK: Um… I think–
AUSTIN (overlapping): And– and it turns up insi– having been imprisoned, suddenly.
JACK: Imprisoned.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK: Inside… yeah.
KEITH: I– I will say there is a– there is a documentary about it, though.
JACK: Hm.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Sure. Sure.
JACK: Sure. You know, revolutionaries will claim all kinds of things. Um...
[AUSTIN laughs softly.]
JACK: Yeah, I think it’s just time– I think it’s just time passes. I think it’s just Clem kicking her heels anxiously, because she knows that, you know, while– If she is discovered, while her situation might not be so bad, it absolutely puts the– puts the end to any kind of revolutionary thinking...
AUSTIN (overlapping): Oh, sure. That she has. For her own… Yeah, the throne.
JACK (overlapping): Yeah. Um…
AUSTIN (continuing): Yeah, the throne becomes further… from– from reach.
JACK: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Okay. No predictions here, then.
JACK: I don’t think so…
AUSTIN: Okay.
JACK (continuing): I mean, part of me wants to be like, Stel Kesh launches a rescue mission?
AUSTIN: Right.
JACK: Um… But I feel like that– that is a secondary prediction to ‘our location will be revealed to the five Stels.’ Um…
AUSTIN: Right. Though, though–
JACK (overlapping): It feels like it’s further down the road.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Just the Curtain finding out or something is not out of… out of… the id– You know, there is a world in which your guard is a member of the Curtain. [chuckles] Right?
JACK: Or just word– You know, as a result of prediction one, w– word filters through, the Curtain just learns.
AUSTIN: Right, right. I mean, yeah, that would let the Curtain know for sure. Right, yes, you’re right. Um… Alright, so, I’m just gonna advance, then. And we’re at the– we’re at the end, we’re at the crossroad. Uh, unless someone has another scene that they wanna do. Um, but it doesn’t sound like that’s the case.
AUSTIN (continuing): Uh… Alright, so… Um… Huh. Can we go over our predictions here? Um, before we– before we resolve.
The crossroad is: will the kingdom accept the aid of the Pact of Necessary Venture in the form of a secure island from which, um, I almost said mother base. From which Millenium Break–
[JACK and SYLVIA laugh.]
AUSTIN (continuing): [amused] –can expand– ‘Cause I’ve written ‘MB’ here. [laughing] From which–
SYLVIA: Oh my god.
AUSTIN (continuing): –Millenium Break can expand their operation and farm food safe from the crisis. Uh… If yes, Clem, what is your first prediction?
JACK: Uh, if yes, the Perennial Wave will shut down Icebreaker Prime.
AUSTIN: Valence?
DRE: Uh, if yes, the religion of the Nobel will slowly spread on Partizan.
AUSTIN: And if no– Oh, also, Sovereign Immunity has a negative token on ‘if yes’. Uh, if no, Gur Sevraq predicts that our location will be revealed to the five Stels. Also predicts that we will still have the food we need to continue because of initiatives by Apparatus slash the pirates and Broun. And others, lots of people are down with the farm. Uh, we got a very cute Broun happy token. Uh, Valence?
DRE: Uh, then Millenium Break begins actively bartering their technology on the black market.
AUSTIN: And Gur — we locate the Divine before it is too late. Um… crossroad is reviewed.
KEITH (overlapping): I had a– I had a thought before we– before we push on about a scene right at the end there.
AUSTIN: Okay.
KEITH (continuing): When you said if– if anybody else had– And I was considering something a– at least gesturing towards something that, uh, the Rapid Evening has access to, which is secret routes.
AUSTIN: Oh, sure.
KEITH: I was wondering if we could– we could, uh, uh… we could parlay that secret routes knowledge into, uh, looking for a new, safe location for Icebreaker Prime.
AUSTIN: So is that a– is that a–
KEITH (overlapping): [quietly] Icebreaker Prime? Is that what we call this?
AUSTIN: Yeah, that’s what– that’s the name of this place, is Icebreaker Prime. Yeah.
KEITH (overlapping): Right, okay.
AUSTIN: Um, we’ve also just said Fort Icebreaker since the technical Fort Icebreaker has been... beaten at this point, the entire long line of forts.
KEITH (overlapping): Right. Yeah.
AUSTIN: Um, is that a new prediction? Oh, no, you can’t– you can’t do predictions.
KEITH: I can’t make a prediction.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Right, um...
KEITH: I can only order that we do it.
AUSTIN: Right. So yeah, I think that’s an– I think that’s an order that maybe you– we can come to as we… uh…
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: I mean, you could order that we do it! Is an interesting thing, right? Um–
KEITH (overlapping): Yeah.
AUSTIN (continuing): You can order that like, we just make landfall somewhere else.
KEITH: Yeah, let’s do it.
AUSTIN: Where do you– Where do we do it?
KEITH: Hm, let me–
AUSTIN (overlapping): Well, now we need the fuckin’ map.
KEITH: Now we need the map.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah.
JACK (overlapping): Wait.
KEITH (overlapping): Can I get the whole map or should I just, uh– should I just go to Roll… 20?
AUSTIN: I can get the whole map, probably.
JACK (overlapping): Hang on.
AUSTIN: What’s up?
JACK: Can they order to do it but we don’t know whether or not they do do it until Perspectives put consequences out?
AUSTIN (overlapping): No. No, Powers can just decide things.
KEITH (overlapping): Yeah.
AUSTIN (continuing): Powers can say– When you order the kingdom to do something, the kingdom does it. Describe–
KEITH (overlapping): And it– If it conflicts with the crossroads then it just changes when the crossroads get to vote, right?
JACK: Oh, right, sure–
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah, but this is– Yeah, this is like a distinct, different thing that you’d be doing, right?
KEITH: Right.
AUSTIN: Um, the crossroad is not, ‘do we make landfall?’ The crossroad is, ‘do we.. go do something?’ Um, uh– You know, um, the way it works is basically: another player’s main or minor character does not have to obey you, but you can order the kingdom to punish or reward them. Um, I think that we would take it almost as like, a challenge/overthrow situation here, where maybe we as the table can come up with consequences based on what we choose here? If that makes sense? Because we can’t just be like, ‘and then we won the fight’. [amused] I’m ordering us to win, and then we did the win. Um, but we can say, like, actually, we’re going to go take land somewhere and try to establish ourselves. Um, I think that that’s a– that’s a thing you can totally order.
Um… [small pause] It’s an interesting crossroad that we could do separately, but I also feel like it’s caught up in this aspect of the crossroads enough that there is a world in which– I’d rather just like, make it happen, you know? Um… And we can cheese it a little bit, which is to say, it sounds like what you’re asking for is for someone to make a prediction on your side, but like... I’d almost rather just do it and then we get to play out what the circumsta– what the– Play out in the rest of the play what co– what shakes out from that going forward, you know?
KEITH: Yeah. Yeah.
AUSTIN: Uh, sorry, I was getting you the map, is what I was doing, and I’ve since forgot–
KEITH (overlapping): I– I’ve opened up Roll20.
AUSTIN: Okay.
KEITH: So I’m– I’m good. If anybody else wants the map then… um–
AUSTIN (overlapping): Then I’ll grab it, yeah.
KEITH: Yeah. Um, so… [brief silence]
AUSTIN: [quietly] Copy.
KEITH: So we’re just in the middle of the Prophet’s Sea right now?
AUSTIN (overlapping): You’re almost exactly– [laughs softly] I just opened the chat. Ali, do you wanna explain what you just said that made me laugh?
[DRE, KEITH and SYLVIA all laugh one after the other.]
ALI: Um, I chanted… [laughs]
AUSTIN: Yeah, uh-huh.
ALI (continuing): –‘Deep Dish Steakhouse’ in our chat. Um, or I... um, pointed out–
KEITH (overlapping): You like– You wanna open up a Deep Dish Steakhouse?
ALI: I… I would like us to set up an– [chuckles] An operating base out of Deep Dish Steakhouse. Um...
DRE (overlapping): It’s already open.
AUSTIN: I think it’s probably too big to– Or too small to have a farm in, but it–
ALI: We need food! And it’s a restaurant, so…
AUSTIN: [amused] Oh yeah, that’s how it works.
[ALI and KEITH laugh.]
DRE: I mean, we have a giant hidden water base that we could just do a hydroponic thing in.
ALI (overlapping): We have a moderately sized– [laughs]
AUSTIN: We are doing the hydroponics thing in, yeah. The thing that I think that– that is trying to happen here is like, get– get territory somewhere that isn’t just the base, right? Um, so yeah, I’ve pasted this map in chat. Do you have a place in mind here, Keith? Yeah, we’re kind of exactly where it says ‘Prophet’s Sea’ — if I remember right.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Somewhere like there, you know?
KEITH: [sighs] So... I sort of feel like one of them safer places to go right now would be… closer to the Prophet’s Path, which is like, desert and no Stel really has control over it, right?
AUSTIN (overlapping): Hm-hm. Hm-hm.
KEITH: Um… And so I don’t wanna go close to Lion’s Rest, ‘cause that might still be buzzing with the dead Divine.
AUSTIN: Oh, Apostolos is in Lion’s Rest. Or not– Sorry, Nideo took over, uh, Lion’s Rest. For sure.
KEITH: Oh, okay. Um…
AUSTIN: Um... but like, one of these other little places? Like on the– on the border here? Or in the– the shore?
KEITH (overlapping): Yeah, I was thinking… Yeah, there’s that finger that’s pointing at this little– that– this finger flicked that little rock?
AUSTIN: Yeah, that finger flicked the rock. [SYLVIA laughs.] I feel like I named the finger at some point, but I don’t– Oh, I did! I definitely named the finger. Um… Fuck, let me open my notes.
KEITH: The Prophet’s finger.
AUSTIN: The Prophet’s finger. Um… ‘Cause it was– that was the destination of where you were supposed to escort Gur Sevraq.
KEITH: Maybe we can– Maybe we can finally make– [laughs] We– We can finally make good on that.
AUSTIN: God. Let me find it. Um… ‘Cause it’s very funny. Uh… I think it’s in my intros doc. “There’s a little ha-ha-ha” — it says ‘laugh’ — “there’s a little ha-ha-ha, I only realized this today, but there’s a little isthmus that looks like a hand with a pointed finger, you see what I’m talkin’ about?” Um… Auspice is the name of the town there. A-U-S-P-I-C-E. Auspice. Like a divine or prophetic token. I should mark that on this map. I like that idea. Take the little rock that’s there, or like, move there and see if it’s amenable.
KEITH: Yeah. Yeah, I think that’s good.
AUSTIN: You’re not– you’re not seizing control of this place, that’s a…
KEITH: Yeah, and we’re close to this one place that seems to like us, right? That was that– what– what Marengo was, right?
AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally. In fact– in fact, yeah, that’s right down there. Marengo is just south of Auspice, so… Um, so it might even be the fact that the idea of like, building with the group there to… you know, take more–
KEITH: Yeah, reaching out to the different independent groups that have all called them– uh, attached themselves to Millenium Break, and being like ‘hey, who has some safe land for us?’
AUSTIN: Right. Right. Alright. Uh, I think that that starts to happen, then. Um, based on– Based on the way the rules work. And we’ll see how it– how it shakes out. Maybe it doesn’t develop right away, you know? I think this probably will take a crossroad or something, uh, to finish, but.
KEITH: It’s slow. It’s a slow thing. [AUSTIN: It’s a slow thing. Um–] We found that out when we tried to... joyride it.
AUSTIN: Uh-huh. Yes. Uh… alright, so. That’s your final bit. Let’s– We went– We already did go over our, um… our predictions, so — Powers, it is your turn. To resolve this crisis. Or this crossroad, not this crisis. Uh, “Power, make a decision: which path of the crossroad do you make the kingdom follow? Describe how your character makes the kingdom do it.” [KEITH: Well, I think–] And I think maybe for clarity, there’s even a– there’s a thing here which is like, Gallica and Presence, uh, basically Gallica says like, ‘I’ll come back in a week for your answer.’ You know?
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: ‘I’ll come back at the end of the month for the answer’ or whatever it is.
JANINE: Can we just… move?
AUSTIN: [amused] Sure.
JANINE: In the time– In that time, just like–
AUSTIN (overlapping): Is that your answer? Is basically like–
JANINE: She just comes back and we’re fuckin’ gone.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah, yeah.
SYLVIA: Oh my god.
AUSTIN: It’s clear that– It is clear that… She found you once, right? But yes.
JANINE: Sure, but that’s a pretty clear message with a pretty low immediate conflict, anyway.
AUSTIN: Uh-huh, yeah. Totally. Hm-hm.
KEITH: And we’re gonna find the Divine before it’s too late, which is great.
AUSTIN: That is good. [KEITH: Well, probably.] Yeah, well, we’ll see.
KEITH: We don’t know what ‘too late’ means, but.
AUSTIN: Uh-huh.
KEITH: Um… so for Aperitif, I think that, uh… I think that they… talk with the rest of the council, the rest of the legislature, and then they also touch in with, you know, different, um… sort of representative figures of the– of the different groups here, and are like, ‘Hey, so here’s what– Everyone that really seems to know what’s going on has been extremely averse to doing this, so what do you think?’ And they’re like, ‘uh, I guess that makes sense. So, I guess no.’ And then I’m like, ‘yeah, I guess no.’
[ALI chuckles.]
AUSTIN: Gucci? Sounded like no. Move the fuckin’ place.
JANINE: Um… Yeah, I think… [sighs] Yeah, I think it’s just like when that– you know, when that... meeting reconvenes, basically Gucci is singing a different tune. From what she’s–
AUSTIN (overlapping): [amused] Yeah, all of a sudden.
JANINE: Which is not like, go to your– go to your enemy’s dinner party and you can– you have more chances to stab them. [AUSTIN laughs.] Now she’s– now she’s just like, ‘yeah, no, we should– Why don’t we just leave?’
AUSTIN: Why don’t– Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
KEITH: Yeah.
JANINE: We don’t have to be here when she gets back, so…
KEITH: Yeah. [AUSTIN: Uh-huh.] I get– I sort of imagine that this– that this vote, like, like, uh… um, you know, we played it out like this because that’s how the game goes, but– like, I sort of imagine that this happens right away, and then the last– the last week of moves seemed to be, um, like the result of this meeting almost?
AUSTIN: Yeah, that makes sense. I don’t mind handwaving– Or like, it’s one of those things where it’s like, we made– we all intuitively knew we were going to say no and started making that decision even before the scheduled… like, confirmation was. [KEITH: Right.] Yeah, yeah. That makes sense.
KEITH: Right. It’s funny to think, like, we both voted yes, but also we moved the thing, and then she shows back up and we’re not there. [ALI laughs.] And then tries to find us and finds us in a totally new place. [AUSTIN (overlapping): In a different place? Yeah, yeah.] And she’s like, ‘oh, so your answer is no, right?’ And it’s like, ‘no, no, we totally are into it.’
AUSTIN: We just wanted to move, we just wanted to stretch our legs a little bit. [KEITH laughs.] Um… Alright, so I will– I will then cross out the ‘yes’ predictions. Though I will say, I think the– I still like the idea of maybe everyone feeling the wave not hit, somehow? You know what I mean? It’s like–
KEITH: We moved!
AUSTIN: Well, we did move, right! The wave hits! [KEITH: Yeah.] The wave hits where we would have been if we hadn’t moved. Love it. Alright. Perspectives, tell us whether each of your predictions on the winning side of the crossroad come true or not. Describe how your character sees what happens. Um… I’m gonna wrap back around on... this first one when I hit the ‘we locate the Divine before it’s too late.’ Is that okay? [KEITH: Yeah.]
But, yes, we still have the food we need to continue. Um, and in fact, I think we see it very well as we begin to move towards this new location in Auspice, because we see the locations where people’s food are getting, uh– the food supplies is coming in short, and it becomes increasingly clear that we’ve had– that we were not ahead of this. And maybe the thing that starts happening here, Gur Sevraq goes to like, help the raid on the next– or not help the raid, but help unpack rations from the military raids? And like, even the rations come in lower than they were before? And it’s not like we just– ‘cause we hit the same base over and over again, it’s because even the military rations are being rationed at this point. They’re not showing up in the number they used to.
Um… the next one, though, comes in from Valence. ‘Millenium Break begins actively bartering their technology on the black market.’ What’s that look like?
DRE: We just have stuff now? [AUSTIN: Okay.] Like, in– in the hangar, where it used to be, ‘well, we’ve got to split this one rack of missiles half and half between like, two mechs.’ [AUSTIN: Uh-huh.] Now they both have like full– I think it’s just like, the Millenium Break has… whatever the equivalent of like, capital is now. It’s– They tiered up. [AUSTIN: Right, right.] You know, if we were like, playing Beam Saber still. [AUSTIN: Right. I love it.] Um… They have money to spend now.
AUSTIN: What is the other side of this? Is it that there is stolen Apostolisian technology floating around into, like, the hands of other– other groups that maybe don’t have our– our noble ambitions, but do want to do damage still? Like, is Tes’ili selling this stuff–
DRE (overlapping): Yeah, and I mean, you know–
AUSTIN (continuing): –to people who are like running, you know, criminal organizations, and who are doing banditry, and blah blah blah? Not that we’re not doing that shit, but you know what I’m saying.
KEITH: You’re saying, was Tes’ili selling this stuff to a version of Tes’ili that didn’t happen to be here?
AUSTIN: Right, yes. [DRE laughs.] Exactly.
DRE: Maybe not directly, but like, if it’s out there, those groups that are doing banditry and stuff will... uh, will acquire it one way or the other.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like it. I like that we’ve now– We’re slowly creating a world in which you could be like, a mech Witcher? And there are just bandit, like, groups out in the wilds between big towns, and– Love it. Great.
JANINE: I’m just picturing a mech with another mech’s head tied to it.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Ugh. Oh, the dream. Give me the– Where is it? [JANINE laughs.] FromSoft, where are you? Please.
KEITH: Tied like a necklace? Like an ornament? Or another–
AUSTIN: No, I think at the side. At the side.
JANINE (overlapping): Like a Griffin head on Roach’s saddle kinda thing.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Yeah. Um…
KEITH: Nice. [amused] That’s cool.
AUSTIN: Alright, so: my final prediction here, which I guess I’ll roll into the top one, ‘our location will be revealed to the five Stels.’ The– the last one I made was, ‘we locate the Divine before it is too late.’ I think that I’m retracting the first one, um, but only– You know what, I’m gonna make the retraction secondary, based on how this first thing goes. Um…
‘We locate the Divine before it’s too late.’ So, everyone’s on deck seven. Right? Everyone’s doing this– Not everyone, but we’re doing the deck seven ghost thing. We’re going out in pairs, we’re going out in triplets, whatever. Um... In fact, I– I’ll raise it. Who is paired with Gur Sevraq today?
KEITH: I can– I can make a convincing case for Aperitif.
AUSTIN: Sure. Okay. This is– this is actually very– this is good. Um, because it’s the two of us, and it’s Mourningbride. Um, and spooky shit starts popping off. One of the things that we… we stumble into a room filled with– or a hallway, we like– Like, it’s been– it’s been nothing. We have flashlights on, you know, we are– we raise, uh, you know, the power to one sector at a time, to try to like, make sure we’re being careful. Um, we think we see something in the shadows. And we make one turn and come to a hallway that is filled with banners. It’s filled with like, um, like pennants and, um, uh, other– flags, like a bunch of different types of those. And that’s weird. And some of them are very old, some of them are like... ancient banners, for our time.
KEITH: Like a trophy room? [AUSTIN: No, it’s like a hallway. It’s like turning–] A war propaganda room?
AUSTIN: No, it’s a hall– Like, there are doors. It’s like, as if there’s a different type of decoration on this floor, do you know what I mean? Like, as if we stumbled onto the Apostolisian, you know, hallway where there was a bunch of… yeah, trophies is kind of right, but it’s more like, um, it’s more like it’s… like family standards, stuff like that. Um...
KEITH: Okay, like crests and things?
AUSTIN: Like crests. Though also like, there are definitely banners here from old OriCom, um, uh, companies.
KEITH: Memorabilia? Like, is it personal items?
AUSTIN: Memorabilia, yeah. It’s sort of like– it’s sort of like, you know, you ever go into a sports fan’s– you ever go to like, a Chili’s or a TGI Friday’s? [KEITH: Yeah.] [ALI and KEITH laugh.] And it’s like that, but a hallway. And it’s like–
KEITH: You ever go into a sports fan’s room? Or an Applebee’s?
AUSTIN: [laughs] Exactly. Um, and we are walking down this hallway, and like, you know, we’re hearing noises and stuff. And then from behind us, uh, as we get through the– towards the back of the hallway, we sorta hear the banners rustle. And they begin to, uh, surround us. Um, they begin to like, spin into like, almost like a whirlwind around us. Uh–
KEITH: Oh, I’ve got one. You ever see someone with– with their room is a– they’ve got, like, the entire border is different team caps?
AUSTIN: Yeah, sure. It’s like that, except–
KEITH: Can they be part of this?
AUSTIN: Absolutely. Um, uh, and these things all eventually coalesce around us, um, and– I mean, you tell me, what do– what is Apparatus doing as this happens?
KEITH: Um, I think just… watching for now. [AUSTIN: Okay, that’s–] There’s not much else I can do.
AUSTIN: That’s probably a good– a good call to some degree. Um, as, uh, they start to do this, I think Gur Sevraq– something very, like… something very like flight or fight kicks in. Uh, and he is like:
AUSTIN (as Gur): We have to go now!
AUSTIN: And begins to like, run forward, deeper into the halls. Uh, there is a deep fear here. Um, and Mourningbride chases after them. What do you do? And the– the banners are like, following the two of them down the hallway, seemingly ignoring you.
KEITH: Wow. This feels really– this feels really dungeon world right now, but I'm gonna try calling out to the banners.
AUSTIN: Ooh, interesting. Um, are you doing this in just like, ‘I'm calling out to them’ or are you doing it in a way that is like, more… vaguely mystical than that?
KEITH: Well, I– As– I was gonna say, as, um, as a member of the Mysteries Metronomica, I have some like, weird Perennial magic.
AUSTIN: You do, we haven't really talked about it, right? Um–
KEITH: No. I don't really know what I have, you just told me that I did.
AUSTIN: Me, either. It has to do with time or cycles or the Perennial Wave or something like that.
KEITH: Can I make this– can I make this last 20 seconds happen again?
AUSTIN: Yes.
KEITH: Can I try and see if they'll react a different way if, if I replay it?
AUSTIN: Yeah, totally. Um, and this time, they do react a different way. And instead of starting to chase after Gur Sevraq, they seem to instead– Gur starts to run, um, and instead they begin to wrap around Mourningbride. Um, like dozens and dozens of these– like bigger than– more than, than would need to wrap her up. [KEITH: Right.] Um, and you're watching this happen. And suddenly they take the form around her of– like, almost as if it's like they've wrapped around her arm to replicate a much larger arm. It’s like–
KEITH: Like a billowing, an inky billowing.
AUSTIN: No, here's the thing.
KEITH: No, okay.
AUSTIN: No. Um, but very quickly she — meaning Mourningbride inside of the Divine Courage, whom she is still the Elect of — slams you against the wall. And she says:
AUSTIN (as Mourningbride): I thought this thing would fall apart on its own. But you helped right the ship, didn't you?
AUSTIN: And the force of a Divine is slowly choking your life away. Um– [dull clanging sound] What was that noise?
ALI: Oh, that was me hitting my microphone, I’m sorry.
AUSTIN: Oh my God. It was very dramatic and scary.
[ALI laughs.]
KEITH: Oh. Ali! Wait, Ali, can you do the thing that you did that other time?
ALI: Oh, sure. [prolonged dull microphone brushing sounds]
SYLVIA: Ooh.
AUSTIN: Courage is here!
[ALI and KEITH laugh, someone claps.]
AUSTIN: Um… Apparatus, what do you do? [KEITH: Ugh.] You feel that there is like, there is this divide between you and Perennial’s force in this moment.
KEITH: You're saying I don't– I can't–
AUSTIN: You can’t do the magic again here, yeah. Are you calling out for help? Are you…
KEITH: Um… I'm being like, really choked to death.
AUSTIN: She is going to kill you if she has the chance. Yeah. And then probably as many other people here as she can. And I'll explain this momentarily. But in the moment, what you need to know is, she has formed the Divine Courage around her. Um, and the Divine Courage is what came on board in that crate at the end of the first crossroad that no one checked.
KEITH: Oops. Um, well… [laughs] Dre in the chat said, “oh, that's what's in the box.”
AUSTIN: That’s what’s in the box. [KEITH: That’s the box.] The ghost was a– The ghost was a swerve. I still know what's up with the ghost, don't worry about it. But…
KEITH: Um, I think I have to try and get away. I can't– As much as I want to ask a question, I can't just choke longer.
AUSTIN: Sure. So you like, slip out of– out of her path. [KEITH: Yeah.] Um, she's chasing you down the hallway. Um, I think, grabs at you again, and… [sighs] I think there's a moment here where, like, you turn the corner and Gur is there with Future. Um, and we get the effect that we got before, of like, being able to see the future just a second ahead. And, uh, we get just like, a chase scene of this Hyphan woman becoming the Divine Courage, which–
If people are like, where did I— Where have I heard that before? Courage originated in the Beam Saber… um, the Beam Saber Road to PARTIZAN game, uh, forever ago.
KEITH: Oh, was this mine?
AUSTIN: Um, this was the one that the– No, this is the– this was the antagonist of that, of that group. Um, that, uh, Lunar Lesson ended up being the pilot of, um, and it is like–
KEITH: Right. Which one did– did Apostolos build? Or–
AUSTIN: I think it was different– that was a different game, I wanna say. Because you were– y'all were Orion people in– y’all were Orion– [KEITH: I just can’t remember the name.] Oh, there's– I don't remember, but we'll come to that. This was specifically this kind of like, it could like, create cloth based harpoons. It could like, turn into just banners in the wind, uh, kind of blowing in the sky. Um, so if you want to go back to like, the first Courage moment here, that is, that is where this is.
Um, uh, and I think there is just this sequence of like Gur and Apparatus running through the hallways, dodging these cloth harpoons, um, and, uh, eventually needing to figure out like– I guess we as the writers have to decide here, how do we deal with this moment? Um, I don't think this is a crisis. This is not a crossroad. This is, uh, this is just a writer's room situation. But I think it kind of, it kind of will wrap back around to– to my initial thing of ‘is our location revealed to the five Stels?’ Because Mourningbride is now — and has always been — an agent of the Stel– Stel Orion group. Uh, House Leson, I believe it's Stel Orion, um, which is a group of cops. Um, the entire thing of her being, um, you know, uh, ruining the Divine Courage and being, uh, ostracized and exiled and fleeing and reconnecting to her roots. She was always just undercover.
Um, I will read the description of House Leson now. They are, in fact, Stel Nideo. “Though blessed by a Divine and committed to the– their vocation of executing the faith’s justice, House Leson remains landed– uh, landed late gentry with lineage going back to a heroic Elect of the Divine Clash. Nideo holds them up as proof that courage is rewarded.” Um, Mourningbride has always, always, always been like, basically a CIA plant. Um, looking to see if people really needed to be afraid of the Sable Court. Um, and was letting this thing play out until it killed everybody involved. But now seeing that y'all have decided to make smart decisions, uh, [amused] like not listen to Clementine Kesh, and begin farming your own shit, um, has instead, um, decided to take matters into her own hands.
Um, she is a reminder that empires really do corrupt the people they conquer sometimes. And that we have to be aware of the fact that people will– that there is no such thing as like, being born into opposition to empire, uh, unfortunately. Um, but we have the upper hand here because of this revelation. This would have been our first crisis, this would have happened, uh, and my plan originally was to kill Gur Sevraq, to be clear. Um, she was going to kill Gur Sevraq. And maybe she still does here, but I want to talk–
KEITH: Oh, is that– is that why she was chasing him at first?
AUSTIN: Oh, yes. And then you– Yes, you changed targets here. Yeah. Uh-huh.
KEITH: Nice.
AUSTIN: Um, and so– But now we have– we have the upper hand in this moment, and I think how we deal with this will– will be connected to whether or not our location is revealed to the five Stels. Because if she escapes, I think that we are– I think that that prediction comes true. Our location is revealed to the five Stels. Not from the Pact of Necessary Venture, but from Mourningbride, the Elect of, uh, of Courage. Um… What happens here? We can narrate, we don't need to go to Beam Saber to play this out, you know?
Um, but I imagine it becomes a strange running fight of some sort. Who would like to be part of whatever this is?
JANINE: Thisbe–
SYLVIA (overlapping): I like fighting Divines!
AUSTIN: [amused] Uh-huh! And was that Thisbe also? Is that what that was? Or was that Gucci– [JANINE: Hm-hm.] Yeah, uh-huh.
DRE: Um, Valence would too.
AUSTIN: Sure. Um, maybe this is like, ‘Hey, good thing we're tied to the elevator.’ [amused] We hit the button and get retracted.
KEITH: The emergency ‘we found the ghost’ button.
AUSTIN: ‘We found the ghost’ button. We get retracted back out. [ART: Yeah, hit the ghost button.] And then like, we get the wide shot of Icebreaker Prime and then this Divine just smashing through the hull and out into the sky. Um, uh, and it is just this, like, swirling collection of– It's like, it's like, what if the thing from Journey with all the– like the character from Journey was like a dope, sharp, sharpened cloth Divine. Um, with all of–
KEITH: You mean the main, like, player character?
AUSTIN: The main character, yeah. The traveler or whatever, the Journey–
KEITH: I haven’t played Journey.
AUSTIN: Journey– Journey’s fun.
ALI: Um… [clears throat]
AUSTIN: Ali?
ALI: I wonder if Eiden would be there and take some sort of like… action against Mourningbride.
AUSTIN: I suspect so, right?
ALI: [laughs] Yeah. Um, I guess she still escapes, right?
AUSTIN: Well, she's, I'm– I'm getting her out into the open so that it's not the hallway where there's only these two people that she could easily kill, you know?
KEITH: We're doing it– This is a team fight now.
AUSTIN: Yeah, I think so. Um, let's– let's– Can we start with Thisbe, given the relationship between these characters goes back to the first– to the beginning here? Thisbe, where do you– where and how would you confront Mourningbride as she escapes from, from… Icebreaker Prime?
JANINE: Um, so she's… So they're in the elevator, they come up, then–
AUSTIN (overlapping): The ‘them’ being Apparatus–
JANINE: –Mourningbride is like bursting out of the… hull.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah, yeah. Out of the side. I think– [JANINE: Sorta like, into the sky.] Yeah. I think Gur is like,
AUSTIN (as Gur): Mourningbride is still the Elect of Courage. She almost killed us both.
JANINE: Um, okay.
KEITH (as Apparatus): On purpose.
JANINE: I kind of imagine a lot of this bursting happening through maybe like one of the farming areas where Thisbe is working?
AUSTIN: Oh, yeah. God, nightmare. Yeah.
JANINE: Because I like the idea of Thisbe– Thisbe like maybe, like… I don't know, pulling a plow– or not pull– well, using a plow. Pulling a plow is– has implications. [AUSTIN: Hits different.] Um, yeah. Um, but I imagine– well, I guess we also don't know if it's hydroponic. It doesn't matter. Uh, she's doing stuff in plants. And then, you know, big– you know, shit gets torn up, uh, big hole in the fucking hull that she can like lean over and see out into the fucking sky and water and whatnot. [AUSTIN: Hm-hm.] Um, and I think she– I think she just like, follows out that– She follows that hole to like the side, or does– does Mourningbride come out the side or the top?
AUSTIN: The side.
JANINE: Is it a vertical hole or a horizontal hole?
AUSTIN: I think it's a horizontal hole, but it– but then like, flies over the top of the– the– Fort Icebreaker, Icebreaker Prime. You know what I mean?
JANINE: Yeah. I just want the moment of like, Thisbe following the hole out horizontally and then climbing up the side of Fort Icebreaker to get on top. [AUSTIN: Yeah. Love it.] Um, because to her, [laughing] that is the direct route. [AUSTIN: Yeah.] She’s not gonna wait for an elevator. Uh, and– How, how big is Mourningbride and Courage?
AUSTIN: So, the– the– It's one of those things that's kind of flexible. Um, she can be as small as she normally is, for interior fights, or can increase her size by, like, building more of these– these, uh, Divines, uh, or these– these banners and cloth, like onto her. These kind of reams of cloth. Um… God, there's like a– there's like an enemy type from some video game that I'm thinking of with this– where it's like, basically she has these like long angular, like almost cone-shaped, uh, appendages, um, that are made of almost– It's not sharpened cloth, but it's like cloth pulled so taut that it's as if it's steel, you know?
Um, and I imagine in this case– Oh, I know what it's from. I know exactly what I'm– the general shape I'm thinking of is a Zone of the Enders, uh, enemy type, which I know does not necessarily play with this audience. Uh, but I'll look it up after I'm done talking. Um, but I think in this case is– is probably again, as big as Mow is, right? Is a large scale mech.
JANINE: Uh, I think Thisbe’s role in this fight then, because other people are coming in, obviously… Um, I think– I think Thisbe’s role— Like, she looks up, she sort of has that moment of like, ‘I guess this is the situation now.’ That moment of like, ‘I don't–’ This is not what– what Thisbe would have wanted, but it is what it is.
Um, and I think she– she kind of does that thing that she did, um, in the– in their last sort of big fight before all the Icebreaker stuff, which is like, she gets a running leap. [AUSTIN: Hm-hm.] Um, and grabs one of those loose ends and tries to basically… be a physical anchor.
AUSTIN: Janine, can I pay off something we talked about before the season started? Here?
JANINE: Ye– Yes?
AUSTIN: Mourningbride, as you begin to– as you are like, ready to make this leap — and you can tell me if this doesn't work for you — Mourningbride says the words in your head.
AUSTIN (as Mourningbride): Rotary. Echelon. Iamb. Region.
AUSTIN: And you stop. You T-pose. [JANINE laughs.] She shuts you down. They don't build things they can't control.
Who tries next? And I think we just go around here. I think everyone gets a shot, and it's gonna take everybody.
[ALI laughs.]
DRE: Um, Valence goes next. [AUSTIN: Uh-huh?] Um… we talked about this move in the last game, when I tried to make a, uh… [AUSTIN: Oh, right.] awful hell doom story — the other part of me being able to push myself is I can shoot lightning.
AUSTIN: [laughing] That is true. You do have a move– [SYLVIA laughing in the background.] [laughing harder] Yeah, by the way, hey, Valence is a Sith Lord. We haven’t talked about this–
[ALI laughs.]
JANINE: Lightning shark. No, lightning shark is the new one.
AUSTIN: Lightning shark is the new one, sorry. Not a Sith Lord, a lightning shark. [laughing] They're not called Sith Lords, they're called lightning sharks and they're manifestations of Alessa’s– Et cetera. Uh, Alessa really–
KEITH (overlapping): We all– We don’t know. God, I wish I knew.
AUSTIN: I wish I knew it. I wish I knew it. Can you, can you read me the move? Here it is, um, uh… ‘Unleash a stroke of light– When you push yourself, in addition to the normal benefits, you can do one of the following.’ We talked about ‘summon an AR storm,’ uh, and, uh, what is it, an alternate reality storm or a, uh, ‘an augmented reality storm in your immediate vicinity. Swirling ads, flashing neon, heavy smog, shouting crowds, et cetera, that will cause confusion.’ Uh, but you're not doing that one, you're doing ‘unleash– unleash a stroke of lightning as a weapon from the power grid.’ What the fuck does this look like?
DRE: Um, well, since I have to push myself [AUSTIN: Yes.] and this is also a Divine, I'm assuming it's not one lightning bolt. [AUSTIN (overlapping): Oh, yeah. No.] Um, I think what this looks like is: as Valence keeps doing this, Valence just starts burning up. [AUSTIN sighs.] So like first it is their robe and then what looks to be their skin dissolves. And it's just their, like, robot exoskeleton. And then that starts to short and, like, pop out. Um, and I think what stops is that eventually Valence’s body just doesn't work anymore.
AUSTIN: Right. And you've burnt away some of the– some of the cloth, but like more of it seems to emerge almost from different parts– Like, you do burn away a bunch of it, and then like three more holes break through Icebreaker Prime as additional parts of Courage reveal themselves to do– to repair the damage. Um, the thing I was thinking of before, by the way, is an Orbital Frame from Zone of the Enders called the, uh, Leopard– Leopardo, right? Leopard, and put an end on the end of it. Leopardo. Uh, and then imagine that it has, um, a bunch of cloth– uh, it's made of cloth, actually. Um, so who's next?
KEITH: Exeter Leopardo.
AUSTIN: That's right. That's right. Uh, who takes– who takes the next shot here?
KEITH: Does, um– Do I have my, do I have my magic back?
AUSTIN: Yeah, but it– There is now, there's like an awareness that it's here and it's not going to be as effective. Um, for reasons that are about the way Perennial– the Perennial Wave seems to not directly affect the Divines. And again, we're learning something here. Um, I think the fact that she hadn't expected it meant that the Perennial Wave was able to affect her. But then now it's– You can rewind it a little bit, right? It's almost as if you have the–
KEITH: Well, I had a different, I had a different thing in mind.
AUSTIN: Ooh, okay, what is it?
KEITH: Uh, I was– I was thinking of trying to, um, uh, make a kind of– a kind of cycle, like, uh, you know, like a repeating frame almost. [AUSTIN: Ooh. Okay.] Like if you take an audio clip and you shorten it and then eventually it sounds like a helicopter, cause it's just like the same, but like with a person. With a body.
AUSTIN: Gotcha. Uh–
KEITH: Does that make sense? [AUSTIN: Sorta.] Like a really, really short gif. Like a second.
AUSTIN: Right. And are you doing this to like, buy time, are you doing this to like–
KEITH: Create an opening?
AUSTIN: Yeah, okay. I like that. So, yeah, so there's this moment here where she is like, it's as if she’s stuck in a gif. You have this moment. I like that for someone else to try to capitalize. Who's up?
SYLVIA: I'll take a shot.
AUSTIN: I bet.
SYLVIA: I got a big old cannon. Seems like a good time to use it.
AUSTIN (overlapping): You do got a big old cannon. Yeah. Um, so you line up the shot and pull the– You do the whole thing of, like, balancing the gun on the– on the deck of the ship.
SYLVIA: Yeah. Yeah.
AUSTIN: Um, and you take a few shots out of her, and, uh, you know, she begins to fall. I think the banners break– For a moment, the banners break up and she falls, down into the– Like, is falling towards the sea, and then they kind of swim back towards her, through the sky and wrap her back up. And she does a flip and comes back up, uh, bigger than before.
[SYLVIA sighs.]
AUSTIN: Fuck.
[KEITH laughs.]
SYLVIA: I hate Divines so much!
AUSTIN: I didn't mean to say bigger than before, I just did.
KEITH: Hole too big.
AUSTIN: Hole too big. Um, who's up? Who's taking the next swing?
ART: I’ll go.
AUSTIN: Yeah?
ART: Um, I think Sovereign Immunity comes out of like, the– the elevator with like a– like a ghost hunting tool?
AUSTIN: Fuck.
[AUSTIN and SYLVIA laugh.]
AUSTIN (as unnamed character): It wasn't the ghost! Not the ghost!
ART: Yeah, um, and so, like– I don't know what it– What do you use to hunt a ghost with?
KEITH: Well, I guess it depends on what you're trying to hunt. There's a lot of audio tools. Do you have an audio tool? Dre mentioned the spirit box earlier. There's like a– I think it's called an Omnivox, which, like, takes fake– [AUSTIN: [muffled] Spaghetti.] Takes like any changes in atmospheric pressure and turns it into something that sounds like a voice.
AUSTIN: [slightly muffled] Apple tater.
KEITH: That’s that.
[SYLVIA laughs.]
AUSTIN: Yeah, uh-huh.
ART: So it’s a– It's a box?
KEITH: Yeah. It's a handheld thing, yeah.
ART: So it's like– it's like the size of a brick?
KEITH: Yeah, pretty much.
[AUSTIN laughs.]
ART: Alright. [laughing] So I guess that's what Sovereign Immunity has. And just like tries to bludgeon this thing with the– with a– You called it a spaghetti box?
AUSTIN: It's called a spaghetti box.
[ALI laughs.]
KEITH: It’s a– [laughs]
AUSTIN: Yeah, that's right.
ART: Did someone say spaghetti box?
[JANINE laughs.]
KEITH: It says spaghetti. It says spaghetti when it’s a ghost there.
AUSTIN: [laughing] Have you not seen this spaghetti ghost clip?
ART: No?
AUSTIN: Oh my–
KEITH: Apple tater.
AUSTIN: Apple tater.
JANINE: [groans] I was typing that joke out when you said it.
AUSTIN: I’m sorry.
JANINE: I was gonna have– I was typing out ‘Sovereign Immunity: What is your name? Mourningbride: Apple tater.’
AUSTIN: Apple tater!
[SYLVIA and KEITH laugh.]
ART: Okay. So, um–
AUSTIN: Are you wearing this whole harness with that camera thing also?
KEITH (overlapping): That was the spirit box.
AUSTIN: Do you have the whole amateur–
ART: Yeah. With night vision goggles on, but like flipped up ‘cause it's bright.
JACK: God. It's so– Ryan losing it is so good.
AUSTIN: It's so good.
KEITH: I think how serious Sovereign Immunity takes the ghost hunting is one of my favorite things the whole season.
AUSTIN: Me too.
SYLVIA: Yeah, it’s really good.
AUSTIN: Not serious enough to bring his giant scythe because he knows giant scythes don't work on ghosts.
ART: Yeah, that's not gonna work on a ghost. What do you, what do you–
JANINE: Ghosts use those half the time.
AUSTIN: It's true.
ART: Yeah, I'm basically bringing the weapon to the ghost at that point.
[AUSTIN laughs.]
KEITH: Like, it's not interesting that Leap takes ghost hunting seriously because he's Leap.
AUSTIN: Right. But Sovereign Immunity…
KEITH: It’s very funny that Sovereign Immunity does.
ART: I’m just gonna say that the ghost– the ghost hunting weapons are probably not super effective right now.
AUSTIN: No, I don't think so. Um, but I do think– I do think that what we get here instead though is Mourningbride revealing her face for a moment. Well above where you're hitting with the brick, looking down on you, and says:
AUSTIN (as Mourningbride): [sighs] Farmer, I will never forgive what you did to Nideo.
AUSTIN: Uh, and slaps you away.
ART (as SI): Ow!
[ALI and KEITH laugh.]
AUSTIN: This is why– You know what, this is why people say Art’s the best. It's the foley work. [ALI: Hmm.] It's the– Really commits to “Ow!” Um, who takes the next, the next swing at this–
ART: [muffled] My spaghetti box!
[AUSTIN and KEITH laugh.]
AUSTIN: Who takes the next swing?
[current]
ALI: Um, I would like to.
AUSTIN: Is this– as, uh, Eiden?
ALI: Yeah, as Eiden. [AUSTIN: Okay.] Um, yeah, I think that he– um, he was like participating in the ghost hunting, but was like in a different wing of the ghost-whatever.
AUSTIN: Yeah, Deck Seven.
ALI: Um, and so– [laughs] Yes. And, um, sort of comes onto the scene. Um, the– He's missing a leg? [AUSTIN: That's correct.] Um, and I was thinking that he would have, like, this cool– Because he knows that he's hunting ghosts and is also walking around a lot, he might have this gun that, like, is on wheels a little bit, um, to use as both of like a stabler, to travel really far distances for a really long time. And, um, also it's going to be really useful in this fight. I imagined it being something that's like, um, it's like almost one of those, like, uh… like those– those things that you hang the bag on in hospitals?
AUSTIN: Yeah, like an IV– like a rolling IV thing.
ALI: Like it has– Yeah. Um, but it has, like, a gun that will, like, point up, but you can kind of shift, um, between this 90 degree angle, like as if it was like a cannon on like a mic arm or something.
AUSTIN: Interesting. Okay.
ALI: [laughing slightly] I think that what he does is he points it to Mourningbride and then, um, like turns something on the back of it, this like color coded whatever, to try to like fuck up the settings on whatever the blast is, to try to set fire to the…
AUSTIN: To Courage, to like the cloth?
ALI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Love it.
KEITH: Is there anything here for Eiden? This is like– Like, she was like his boss, right?
AUSTIN: No.
ALI: No.
KEITH: No?
ALI: Um, they– It's such a weird thing with Eiden. I think that he's able to– I think that he's able to act so quickly because… he was not only in it for longer than she was, but he was also sort of on the fence with her to begin with. Um…
AUSTIN: Yeah.
KEITH: Oh.
ALI: They didn't have–
KEITH: I forgot. I didn't– I don't remember that being the case.
ALI: Yeah. It wasn't, like, an actively antagonistic relationship, but there's definitely– He's having this feeling now of like, when you hear about someone you already know that you didn't like, and it’s confirmed. Um, and he's like, yeah, I will fire a rocket at you, I’ve been wanting to do this for a while.
AUSTIN (overlapping): I knew that motherfucker was no good. I knew it in my heart. [ALI: Yeah.] They're part of the same group, but yeah, Mourningbride was a new recruit– was a newer recruit, and had always been kept at arm's distance. Did not have a lot of authority necessarily, was working her way up based on time spent in, um…
ALI: Yeah, Eiden is kind of adjacent to Mourningbride and also, um, was kind of a jerk to her. [AUSTIN: Right.] Very briefly.
AUSTIN: And also– And also is like, uh– Is a soldier. Was always– Was a soldier for Apostolos for years.
ALI: Yeah. And probably saw a bunch of shitty, you know– [AUSTIN: Oh yeah.] –faceturners at Apostolos too, but like, yeah. I can shoot my friends. I don't give a shit. You're not my friend anymore.
AUSTIN: No, you're not– Bye.
[ALI laughs.]
AUSTIN: Um, so yeah. Uh, more of Mourning– or Mourningbride’s Divine Courage catches fire here. Um, uh, is this like– Well, it couldn't have been a back pocket thing, right? Because Eiden didn't know that… that this was coming, necessarily.
ALI: Right, but I think that he is the sort of person that when you think that you're going on a hunt, you bring a gun with you.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Right.
[AUSTIN and ALI laugh.]
AUSTIN: Not like Sovereign Immunity, who brought a spaghetti box. [ALI and KEITH laugh.] Um, great. Does anyone else want to get a hit in here? Does Thisbe come back online?
JANINE: Um, yeah, I… [AUSTIN: In this moment, yeah.] I actually really, I wonder if– Is that, is that, like, key phrase, is that a time thing or is that a thing where you need to have another phrase to reactivate?
AUSTIN: It's up to you. What do you– What do you think is more interesting?
JANINE: Uh… I mean, if we make it another phrase to reactivate, that becomes a problem, because we've already established–
AUSTIN: Then we’ve killed Thisbe.
JANINE: Basically, or like, we've put her out of commission for a little while, probably.
AUSTIN: Until someone finds that phrase. Right.
JANINE: Yeah.
KEITH: Figure A might be able to find it.
AUSTIN: Potentially, but like, we'd lose Thisbe for at least a Crossroad, right?
KEITH: Right.
ALI: Um, I could put Broun in the scene, like, trying to help Thisbe. [laughs]
AUSTIN: Oh, to help reactivate Thisbe?
JANINE: Maybe– Oh my god, does Broun like hotwire Thisbe?
AUSTIN: Yeah. That's exactly what I was thinking!
ALI: Oh, that’s so fucking funny. [laughs]
JANINE: Like Broun’s– Broun’s kind of been in and around there before. Broun helped, sort of– Broun, uh, helped Thisbe defrag a little bit, so, like, they have some familiarity with Thisbe’s architecture in that way.
ALI: Yeah. And I feel like this is the action that they would take in this moment.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Can I propose the best, like, final step to reactivating Thisbe? [ALI: Yeah, please.] I say it's the best because it's funny, but also it's a lot. You know how Thisbe’s power source recharges, is through, like, rapid motion? [JANINE laughs.] What if you have to fucking drop her off the top of Fort Icebreaker? [JANINE laughs, ALI gasps.] So that the motion will recharge–
JANINE: Okay, I thought you were gonna say, like, put– I thought you were gonna say, like, put her in a giant paint can shaker.
AUSTIN: [laughing] Nooo!
KEITH: Oh, so this is– This code is, like, a battery discharge. Immediate battery discharge?
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah, maybe that's what it is. It's like– or like a– Yeah, it's like a battery discharge, and like deactivates the current thing, and then drains– It begins a process of draining the battery, and you’ve caught enough of it to where you can hotwire it back up a little bit, but there’s not enough to fight a Divine in there. But dropping it off of– Dropping her off of the top of this Fort is like, you know, the– the engine catches.
ALI: That’s so funny.
AUSTIN: Is it too much?
JANINE: Did anyone else have a CD player? Did anyone else have a CD player, period.
KEITH: Yes.
AUSTIN: Yes.
JANINE: [amused] Did anyone else have a CD player when they were younger that was, like, broken just enough that you had to hit it against something to make it work sometimes?
AUSTIN: Yes!
KEITH: Yeah. Yeah, I think they come like that.
[AUSTIN and ALI laugh.]
AUSTIN: Love it. And then sprints back up the side?
JANINE: Although they probably have to like– I imagine they have to, like, roll her off, right? Like she’s– She big. [AUSTIN (overlapping): She big.] And–
[Crosstalk.]
KEITH: –one of the flashlights that you have to shake or something.
AUSTIN: Right.
JANINE: So you have to tip Thisbe over and then roll her over the edge into the water.
KEITH: I mean, we can do whatever we want here. We can say when the battery goes out, there's a– a little wheel pops out. [ALI laughs.] Like, we know we’re gonna have to roll her.
AUSTIN: [laughing] We have to roll her.
KEITH: Yeah, this is– She was– Thisbe was built by someone who knew what was– how Thisbe worked.
JANINE: You just have to wind the wheel for 200 or so years. [AUSTIN: Right.] It’s fine. To pressurize the crystal that I’ve– that I’ve said is in there.
AUSTIN: God.
ALI: Um, in, in, in, um, uh– If this is still the fall situation, um, I think that– [laughs] Thisbe and Broun fall together in that case?
JANINE & AUSTIN: Aww!
JANINE: That seems dangerous.
ALI: It's so dangerous! But like, it’s Broun–
KEITH: Like, you fell out trying to push?
ALI: Yeah, yeah. It's Broun, like, with Thisbe on the edge of this thing, like very stressed–
JANINE (overlapping): Does Broun’s jacket like… get caught?
ALI: –trying to push them over. [laughs] Yeah, and it’s just like– When they do the, like, final push, like, you know, one foot firm, the leg behind them pushing, they, like, fall together, and Broun just grabs onto Thisbe. [ALI and JANINE laugh.]
AUSTIN: Aww.
KEITH: This is also like, like– Broun has no idea whether this works or not.
AUSTIN: Right. This isn’t a good–
KEITH: It’s like a panic decision. Like, Thisbe’s not working, let me push her off of the cliff.
AUSTIN: I know she needs to move really fast!
JANINE: Yeah, kinda get some momentum. The spinning helps, the fall helps.
KEITH: It's the sort of thing where like, everyone would be really mad if this didn't work. [ALI and SYLVIA laugh.] Or at least like everybody would be really confused why you did this.
AUSTIN: What are you doing? [KEITH laughs.] And then, do you catch Broun as the two of you fall? Or no?
JANINE: Um, I think– [ALI snorts, ART laughs.] So I think Thisbe– I think Thisbe has to hit the water, um, and, like, probably breaks the surface tension, so that makes sense. So Broun probably doesn’t… die.
AUSTIN: Hm-hm.
[ALI laughs.]
KEITH: I bet that vacuum hurts.
JANINE: Uh, I think it does probably have to be a moment of just, like, Thisbe hits the water. There has to be that moment of like, oh, fuck! And then Thisbe I think reactivates, uh… [AUSTIN: Ugh.] Is very confused, kind of like confused in that way of like, not knowing which way is up for a second. [AUSTIN: Hm-hm.] So maybe there’s a moment where she even, like, tries to swim down thinking that's up, which is [laughing] also probably not super fun. [AUSTIN: No.] Um, but then corrects, and– and sort of has Broun maybe under one arm. [AUSTIN: Hm-hm.] And then climbs up the side of– of Fort Icebreaker.
AUSTIN: Um… Uh, and the fight is going on up top at this point. I think at this point, by now, some mechs are out, you know, uh, there– I mean, obviously Milli, you've already set up yours. Uh, you've already brought the Stray Dog, uh, to fight. Does the Stray Dog activate the Lacrimosa mode at any point? Or do you stick to the sniper rifle?
SYLVIA: No, I think– Because this is, this seems like a pretty, like, at distance fight. [AUSTIN: Yeah, fair.] I also think Milli is just not eager to use that again.
AUSTIN: Fair. You know what, fair.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Totally. Um, but then, yeah, I guess, Thisbe, at this point– The point at which you return is the point at which, uh, Eiden has fired the… the blaster or whatever, caught, uh, Mourningbride on fire and you– you're climbing back up with– [laughing] with Broun on your back? Where is Broun now?
JANINE: Broun's like tucked under Thisbe’s arm.
AUSTIN: Oh. Amazing. And what do you do?
JANINE: Like anime. Like an anime big, big person carrying anime small person.
ALI: Hm-hm.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Uh, and you make your way back up. Mourningbride is– Courage is on fire. We know that Mourningbride has now revealed, uh, her face to– to mock Sovereign Immunity. What do you do?
JANINE: Me specifically?
AUSTIN: Yeah, I figured– I'm putting it back in your court. I took your initial thing–
JANINE (overlapping): Okay. I thought– I thought my turn had–
AUSTIN: No, we’re– We should wrap this fight up at this point and I'm– I’m kind of giving you the knockout blow as everyone's set up stuff.
JANINE: What’s on the deck of this– of this Fort… ship?
AUSTIN: What do you want to be on the deck of this Fort ship? Uh…
KEITH: Apples.
AUSTIN: There's some apples. There's– There's, uh, you know– There’s, you know, the sort of stuff that’s on the deck of a– of an aircraft carrier, right. So probably like, um– Or the sort of stuff that’s on the deck of an aircraft carrier in an anime. So like tanks of fuel, [laughing] which they probably don't just keep on the deck in real aircraft carriers. Um, giant antennas.
JANINE: I know what I want. [AUSTIN: What do you want?] I know what I want. I know what I want. Um, so you know how aircraft land on aircraft carriers, right?
AUSTIN: Ah, yes, I do.
JANINE: The elastic band thing? [AUSTIN: Uh-huh?] There's like a chord that catches on the plane, to make sure doesn't sail right off the fucking edge. [AUSTIN: Hm-hm.] Um, I want Thisbe to, uh–
KEITH (overlapping): I have not seen that, that sounds–
JANINE: Yeah, it's a thing. Um… I was– I was really thinking like, Thisbe should throw a plane. That seems a bit ex– I don't think Thisbe can throw a plane. Um, that'd be very funny, but, uh, so I think Thisbe retreats– basically like, goes to the gap where, you know, one of these like hooks and cord sort of systems are. And I think she just, like, peels it out, um, and rips the end off, and like, yeah, we're gonna have to fix that. But, uh… And I think she basically, like… I don't wanna use the word lassos, but kinda lassos, or like kinda– It's, it's like a– It's kind of like a grapple situation, right? Like, maybe she doesn't even pull the other end out, maybe she just pulls most of it loose.
AUSTIN: Right.
JANINE: And then she, you know, wants to fling it to Mourningbride and then just like, force her to crash onto the deck.
AUSTIN: Do other people help you grab that rope and power it down? Or are you, like, just tapped into some truly remarkable strength, inner strength in this moment? [JANINE: Um…] Are we getting like Motoko Kusanagi at the end of Ghost in the Shell, like, willing to take– Do you know what I mean?
JANINE: Yeah, no, I think it's– So this is where I'm breaking away from, from actual aircraft carrier stuff, ‘cause I don't really know how this shit works. [AUSTIN: Hm-hm.] I'm just using pieced-together knowledge. Um, I'm going to say though that this is on, like, a spool, like a reel? [AUSTIN: Sure.] Where there’s like an elastic element, but also a mechanical element of like, you know, we're dealing with machines that are much faster than normal planes, probably.
AUSTIN: Oh, yeah.
JANINE: Um, sometimes you gotta work against it a little more. And I think the thing that Thisbe does is basically like, she hooks Mourningbride on this, then interfaces with that spool to just send it reeling back in at a– [AUSTIN: Gotcha.] At a fucking nonsense speed.
AUSTIN: So it is Icebreaker that begins to– to yank Courage back? [JANINE: Yeah.] Onto the ship, onto Icebreaker, and like tie– And, and then, you know, uh, restrain, basically. Um, uh, yeah, the– I think there’s a moment finally where it sn– And like, the other thing is, she now can't escape this… whatever special, uh, Sable Court fire that is spreading through the– um, the body of Courage.
Um, God, here's– here's my last gift to Eiden. Um, do you remember Eiden places– Is someone who places hexes on– on places? What if, what if he had already prepped the top with hexes? [JANINE: Ha-ha!] The hexes that Mourningbride specifically didn't want you to activate in the forest. One of them activates and like, you know, alarms go off, but also it just traps Courage in place under a sort of like, energy field, you know, um, and– [JANINE: That rules.] And separates it, separates it from– from Mourningbride.
Um, I guess you have another prisoner now, is what it sounds like.
[ALI laughs.]
AUSTIN: Uh, or–
ALI: [unintelligible, crosstalk]
JANINE: She's not going to get any nail polish.
[AUSTIN laughs.]
AUSTIN: Um, and so, yeah–
JANINE: Or flowers.
AUSTIN: –I will now retract “Our location will be revealed to the five Stels.” [ALI sighs.] Congrats on that one. Um, and no one died! It was not too late. Gur Sevraq was not killed by–
ALI: God.
KEITH: Nice.
AUSTIN: Which, which is one-hundred percent where this was going. Um…
KEITH: Glad, uh, glad Aperitif was there.
AUSTIN: Me too. Nice work.
KEITH: Thank you.
AUSTIN: Uh-huh.
DRE: I will say, I think Valence is just a cloud now.
[ALI gasps.]
AUSTIN: Word?
DRE: Yeah. I– I think their whole body be gone.
AUSTIN: Damn. Their whole body.
KEITH: I found the ghost! The ghost is here now!
[AUSTIN and JANINE laugh.]
DRE: I think, you know, Valence might ask Broun to build them a little– a little like, housing so they can, like, have a voice, but–
KEITH: Oh, you don't even have a voice.
AUSTIN: Mm-mm.
ALI: No, they had speakers in their little wolf body, that’s the whole–
DRE: Yeah. Gas, gas doesn't really have vocal chords.
KEITH: No, but magic shit. I don't know.
AUSTIN: Hm-hm.
[ALI laughs.]
DRE: I mean, I'm psychic, but–
AUSTIN (overlapping): But.
[DRE laughs.]
AUSTIN: God. [ALI: Oh yeah.] Alright, Touchstones. How do you feel? About everything that's happened?
ALI: Huh, well…
AUSTIN: So that's Milli–
ART: Furious at the destruction of what I believe is the only spaghetti box on board.
[AUSTIN, JANINE and KEITH laugh.]
AUSTIN: What are we gonna do about the ghost now?
KEITH: We can– We– It's very easy to build a spaghetti box. All you need is a radio that automatically changes its tuner, uh, five times a second and that's all it is.
ART: Hm. Well, I don't have one of those, and I'm mad about it.
KEITH: Crisis.
ART: So are the people on this– [AUSTIN: On this ship.] On this ship.
AUSTIN: We need to up our– our spaghetti box production. Done with the farms, up with the spaghetti box factory.
ART: We have all this time to build tables, and now–
[AUSTIN laughs.]
SYLVIA: I got one.
AUSTIN: Alright. What's up?
SYLVIA: Uh, Milli is just feeling less safe.
AUSTIN: Sure.
SYLVIA: Like, because someone who was here turned out to be a superpowered Divine cop? [AUSTIN: Yeah.] Um, and it's like, if they were able to get that through without anyone noticing, like, what else could be going on?
AUSTIN: Yeah. Um, I'll note, just as a reminder, uh, that the message, uh, with, uh, from Cymbidium to Mourningbride that you were asked to deliver, Thisbe, ended with– with the sentence: “I know you still carry Courage with you.” So, just as proof that I have not– this is not, like, a wild mid-season swing. This has always been the plan with Mourningbride. It is what it is. Um…
KEITH: Yeah, as soon as– As soon as, uh, it started happening, I was like, oh, this is why Mourningbride was Austin's minor character.
AUSTIN: Yeah, a hundred percent.
KEITH: Never trust an Austin minor character anymore.
AUSTIN: Never. Never. Um, which– I guess she's still here, which is weird. Uh, we'll see for how long. Uh… Who else has a– I guess Broun, also a Touchstone.
ALI: It's weird because I think that the resolution of the– the Crossroad was fairly positive and also being able to take down a Divine is fairly positive. Um…
AUSTIN: Yeah, people are like, yo, we fuckin’ beat a Divine.
ALI: [sighs] Um… I– You know, it's– It was such a… aesthetic fight that I feel like it would be hard for people on board not to be like, holy shit, that happened and it’s sick and we did it. Um… yeah, I definitely think that there's that feeling of unrest, um, that Milli described. But I do think that there's like a, um, there's still an increasing confidence in the general public, because this has been– That is two opportunities to show that we can sort of hold our own in that way.
AUSTIN: Right.
ALI: Um, both not having to… like, take from this– these people that we felt weird about. Um, and then also being able to defeat such a big enemy.
AUSTIN: Hm-hm. I love it. Um, I'm curious if that makes– Does that– Do either of you– or all three of you, do any of you check a crisis box here? Um, and then additionally, do you think that this is enough of a disagreement between the people who are– like, feel less safe and the people who feel like there was an accomplishment here for there to be an additional crisis box to check? Or do you think that both– both of those things are– are able to be held without it being a contradiction?
SYLVIA: I think like– I don't know. I think that those– I don't think those are super, like, exclusive from each other, honestly, because it's like… there is still that uncertainty about like people being around here, but also we fought back against a Divine. [AUSTIN: Yeah.] Like, I feel like there's some, like, wiggle room there.
AUSTIN: There’s–
ALI: Right.
SYLVIA: I'm also happy to check a crisis box, though.
[AUSTIN and ALI laugh.]
AUSTIN: That’s the question.
ART: This feels like one crisis box to me.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Like, altogether, at the end of the day, one crisis box from a combination of things.
ART: Yeah, ‘cause it's a– it's a lot– it's a lot of stuff.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
KEITH: Well, I think– I think that there's– There's some, there's some stuff here that would lose a crisis box.
AUSTIN: I think that's what Art is saying, is: we gain some, we lose some, at the end of the day, we get to one. Because at most we could have increased by seven in a single turn, which is two from each person, plus a dis– I guess eight, plus disagreements among each person, each Touchstone. And the most we could reduce is six. Eh, mm, one. Let's say– let's say one altogether.
ALI: Yeah, each– each Touchstone–
ART: Yeah, it’s a plus one.
KEITH: Alright.
AUSTIN: I think that makes sense.
KEITH: I mean, I– Yeah, I guess you can't overstate how big of a deal a Divine fight is.
AUSTIN: Right. Um, totally. Uh, and also–
KEITH: But like, we’re not starving to death.
AUSTIN: No, no, this is positive.
KEITH: And we’re not f– we’re not caught–
AUSTIN: But we're also a revolutionary group and crisis is around the corner at all times.
ALI: Right.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Um, uh, all right. New law– Or wait, is that right? Is that it? Yeah. New law. That's the fourth thing. New rule, new no-no. What is our– what is the– What do the Powers think the lesson here was?
KEITH: New no-no, everyone has to follow laws now. [AUSTIN laughs.] You have a law, you gotta follow it!
AUSTIN: That's– Uh-huh, yeah, good.
KEITH: What do we get outta this?
AUSTIN: You know, we ended with this big Divine fight, but I will– Eh, I mean, maybe it's being connected, but I think the– thematically, a lot of this stuff was about self-sustainability or like…
KEITH: Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too.
AUSTIN: Something in that space, maybe?
KEITH: Something about– about operating independently. [JANINE: Yeah.] Uh, “the kingdom produces what it can for itself.”
JANINE: It feels like it needs to be more of a thing, right? Like more of a, um, not command, but like more– more of like a–
AUSTIN: An axiom, like a–
JANINE: We should, blah, blah, blah. Or like… It does need to be something in that vein though, for sure.
KEITH: “The kingdom should produce what it can for itself?”
AUSTIN: Except that you did also take a lot. From people.
ART: [unintelligible, crosstalk] true.
JANINE: Oh, oh, what if–
KEITH: Yeah.
JANINE: Well, that's true. Um…
AUSTIN: But you could–
KEITH: That's fine, we’re allowed to be wrong.
AUSTIN: Right. Right. You're allowed to have ambitions that you have not necessarily lived up to. What was your idea? You had a big “oh.”
JANINE: What if it's something like, um, “there are strings attached to every gift but that which we give ourselves” or something like that. So like a– like a– basically a reminder of like, if we… make arrangements and agreements with others, there could always be some– some hidden cost there. But if we do for ourselves, if we set ourselves up, then we know what the costs are at least, like, we have more control. [AUSTIN: Hm-hm.] It's not at the whim of a third party–
KEITH: I like the direction, but I don't want to institutionalize mistrust.
AUSTIN: You?
[ALI snorts, JANINE laughs.]
KEITH: Me.
AUSTIN: [amused] Okay.
KEITH: Well, I just don't want to say, ‘cause we– There might be a group that comes out that doesn't have strings attached to its offer. I don't wanna–
ALI: Hm.
KEITH: Ali says no, there won't be. There could be.
ALI: Well, you know, there's always strings. They could be positive strings. You could have a harp, but they're strings.
AUSTIN: Damn.
JANINE: I mean–
[ALI laughs.]
KEITH: Damn, shit.
AUSTIN: Damn.
KEITH: Damn, mind blown. Whoa!
AUSTIN: Fucking ready for that.
JANINE: This also doesn't have to be a thing of like, we will never take offers from others. [KEITH: Yeah.] It's just a thing of like, the– you know, “if we can provide it for ourselves, we should.” [AUSTIN: Hm-hm.] Versus– And the thing– That's what happened here, is just like, we got an offer, and like, well actually, what if we try and provide this for ourselves? And then we could, so the offer auto– automatically became way less appealing.
KEITH: Yeah. It ended up not even being an offer. We found our own food and we found a safe place for ourselves. There was nothing even to do. Um…
JANINE: I'm still kinda hung up on like– something like, um, “there is no need to take from others what we can provide for ourselves.” Which I don't think conflicts with the piracy thing too much, ‘cause like, that's not stuff that we can provide ourselves.
KEITH: That’s what I was going to say when– when Austin brought up that we were taking stuff, but we were taking stuff from our enemies, which is part of our whole deal anyway.
AUSTIN: Hm-hm.
JANINE: Maybe it's like, we don't need to accept gifts if we can provide for ourselves. Maybe that's the thing actually, is– you know, we don't need to do X if we can Y, because then it gives us room to be like, we need to aspire towards Y then. You know?
AUSTIN: Hm-hm. Uh, I do like the idea of like, “we don't need to accept gifts and their attached strings if we…” But then there's like a poetic, you know, ending there that I don't have.
KEITH: I– yeah, I guess– I guess the– the– I'm trying to figure out the core of what my objection to the wording has been. And I– I think it's, um, not sounding too isolationist, like, leaving room– [AUSTIN: Right.] Having the same message– [AUSTIN: Oh, what about–] –but leaving room for, for gifts that aren't self-serving or–
AUSTIN: Um, “when we provide for ourselves, we can provide for others.”
[TANAGER. PERFECT. TOUCHPAPER. by Jack de Quidt begins under voiceover.]
JANINE: Hm.
AUSTIN: Because that is explicitly not isolationist.
JANINE: Yeah.
KEITH: Yeah, yeah.
AUSTIN: –and speaks to the– the actual underlying goal, which is: we can't fuckin’ help people if we don't– if we can't feed ourselves.
KEITH: To have more than enough, but also to put it where– to– [AUSTIN: Right.] To be able to do something with having more than enough.
JANINE: If we have a shortage, you know, we need to figure that first– figure that out, because otherwise it's going to limit what we can actually do for other people.
AUSTIN: Hm-hm. Hm-hm.
JANINE: Yeah.
KEITH: Yeah. I like that.
AUSTIN: All right. Done.
[Voiceover ends, music plays to the end.]